The Assassin of Olympus
by Pterygio
Summary: Percy was shown terrible things. Angered by what he saw, he embarks upon a mission to right the wrongs in the world. The gods are not who the demigods worship. He was gifted with power they never intended any demigod to have, and power they don't even have themselves. With the help of the only god he can trust, he'll use that power to end their corruption permanently.
1. Orb

Percy Jackson, the Assassin of Olympus. How did I come to bear such a title? It's a long story, if you're up for it. I suppose it all started with the visions.

The first time it happened I had just woken up. I slept on the top half of a bunk bed in a dorm room at Yancy Academy, my school. My only friend, Grover, slept on the bottom bunk. I'd awoken to the sound of an alarm and groggily sat up. I was about to hop to the floor when suddenly I was somewhere else.

At the time I called it a vision, but it felt real. It was more than a lucid dream. I was in control of myself in the middle of a long hallway. The walls, floor, and ceiling were pitch black, giving the illusion that I was in the middle of a void, but I knew they were there because I could feel them when I tried to touch them, making the "vision" even more realistic.

The only thing that kept me from feeling trapped was the object at the end of the tunnel. There was a sword sitting on the ground, balancing on the tip of its glowing blade. It was beautiful. When I closed my eyes, it was as if they were still open but the sword was replaced by an ordinary ballpoint pen. It was just barely close enough for me to be able to read the word ' _Anaklusmos_ ' on the side of it. For some reason I knew that the word was ancient Greek and translated to ' _Riptide_ '.

I wanted the sword. I felt like I was meant to have it. I took a step toward it and suddenly I was back in my dorm , but this time I was on the floor and Grover was looking down at me confusedly.

"Are you okay?" he asked me with a concerned look in his eyes.

I blinked a couple of times to ensure I was back in the real world. "Yeah," I said and stood. I tried to pass the "vision" off as a dream or my imagination, but the vividness made it impossible. I wasn't going to tell Grover about it, though, or else he'd think I'd gone insane.

The second time it happened I was in the middle of class. Mrs. Dodds was at the front of the room talking about algebra or some other useless garbage while at the same time stealing menacing glares at me every once in a while. I didn't understand why she did it, but I'd just accepted it and ignored it by that point.

I was failing to understand what she was teaching us when I was pulled back into the hallway. The sword was still there and I still desperately wanted it. I took a step forward and was pleased when I wasn't pulled back to reality this time. I took another step, then another. I closed half the distance when I was transported back to Mrs. Dodd's classroom.

" _Percy Jackson_ ," the teacher said my name with so much hate you could almost see it dripping from her wrinkled old lips. "Will you please stop kicking the desk and pay attention?"

"Sorry," I said, irritation in my voice because I still hadn't reached the sword. The day continued on normally from that point.

Two days later it happened yet again. I was walking to the lunchroom next to Grover and I was once again pulled to that hallway. I picked up right where I left off last time. I got one step in this time before I found myself on the hallway floor.

"Percy?" Grover said.

" _What?_ " I growled, getting angry at the fact that I still hadn't obtained the sword. I stood and looked at my best friend who had a hurt expression on his face due to my aggressive response. "Sorry," I said. "I just tripped."

This continued to happen over and over again for the next couple of weeks. At seemingly random points I'd find myself in this alternate dimension, take one step toward the sword, and then find myself on the floor. It got the point where I didn't even feel embarrassed when it happened anymore, only annoyed that I still didn't have the sword. Of course Grover was still worried about me, suspecting something was wrong.

When something finally came of the 'visions' I'd been getting, we were on a field trip to a museum. Our teacher, Mr. Brunner, was talking about the Greek gods and this 'titanomachy' crap when I was once again teleported into that hallway. I was now five feet away from it. If I took just a few more steps I could grab it.

I cautiously took one step and felt relieved when I didn't get transported back to museum. I took two more steps and reached out to touch the handle when suddenly a hand was on my wrist.

I looked up and standing next to me was a man in a black hood and cape. He wore a leather vest covering a dark gray shirt. He had black khaki pants and a pair of black boots. But the most prominent feature of this man was his face. He had medium-length dark brown hair and blood red eyes. He was clean of facial hair. He looked like he was in his mid-twenties but his eyes showed age beyond comprehension. I could feel the power radiating off of him.

"Who are you?" I asked after recovering from being startled.

The man winced as if the question caused him physical pain. "It does not matter who I am," he said. His voice was soft and deep, yet oddly beautiful. It was is if every word he spoke was vital to the very stability of the universe and it would be pure idiocy to forget a single one of them. "You can call me an entity. Think about what you are about to do, Perseus Jackson."

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"Your question seeks an answer far more complex than man can understand."

"I only asked how you know my name."

He smiled. The smile complimented his chiseled features.

"There is nothing I don't know," said the 'entity'.

"Where are we? How are you here?" I asked.

"This hallway is not a creation of my own. They want to claim you. This is a clever game they've created."

"Who are you talking about?"

He paused. "I do not think I should answer that question. The events that are to take place are a delicate thing to meddle in. You'll come to get your answer soon enough."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't. You're not meant to."

"Why are you here?"

"That is a question I wish to answer." He finally let go of my wrist and I let it fall to my side. "This is a nice sword," he commented whilst looking at Riptide. "You'd wield it nicely. But you cannot have it."

"Why not?" I asked.

"You do not know the implications that come with taking this sword. You grab that hilt and the sword is eternally yours. It shall never leave your side and never fail you. But then you'll be following the path they aligned."

"This is the same 'they' as before?"

"Yes. When you grab this sword you're essentially stepping into their cage and locking the door on yourself."

"So. . . what? Taking this sword is like signing a contract? I get a cool sword yet I'm this mysterious 'they's' servant?"

"Correct."

"I'm assuming you're going to explain what's terrible about that."

A smile spread across his face again and he leaned against the black wall with his arms crossed. "I cannot explain that until you know who they are and what their motives are. But I can give you the means to find out." He held out his hand and a solid blue marble appeared on his palm. "Take it," he said.

I did as he asked and took the sphere from him.

"Put it in a pocket," he said.

Again, I followed his instruction.

"You'll not be able to remove it from that pocket if you try. When you change pants the orb will reappear in the pocket of your new attire. When you discover the truth of this world you'll be able to remove the orb from your pocket. When that happens you are to put it in your mouth and swallow it."

I reached into my pocket and tried to take it out but found it was impossible. "Why?" I asked.

"Doing so will reveal the deeper truth. It will tell you what you need to know, more than they want you to know. It shall give you the answers you want now but I am not yet able to give."

"Okay," I said. "So what now?"

"Now I leave," he said. "But first I have a couple of gifts for you." He reached into a pocket on his vest and took out a knife. He held the knife in his right hand and held out his left. In a flash of silver the knife was gone and there was now a slice on his palm. Instead of normal crimson blood an odd substance leaked from the wound. It was bright yellow; not golden, but neon yellow. But at the same time it somehow wasn't yellow. It looked black with small white specks on it, like outer space.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Blood holds a lot of power," he said. Suddenly the wound was gone and on his palm was a small glass vial filled with the man's strange blood. He held it out to me.

I cautiously accepted it. The vial felt very warm, which kind of grossed me out.

"Drink it," he said.

"You want me to drink your blood?"

"Yes. I wish to grant you power that you will need."

"And you're giving me that through your blood?"

"It's a complex science that cannot be taught in the short time we have together. Just drink it."

I was hesitant, but he's given me no reason not to trust him. Most would say red eyes are a sign of villainy or evil, but on him they're different. They're like rubies: valuable. Every second you look into them gives you something. I saw no malice. He truly wanted to help me.

"What are your motives?" I asked.

"Motives?" he repeated. "I have no motives."

"What do you gain for helping me?"

"I have nothing to gain. I simply care what happens to this world."

Either he's an amazing liar or telling the truth. I chose to believe the latter and uncorked the vial and drank it. Drank may not be the correct term as I never felt the blood actually hit my tongue. It was as if it vanished the instant it entered my mouth. There was no flavor. I brought the vial down and it was empty yet I still tasted no trace of the blood.

I stared at the 'entity' and waited for something to happen.

"Do you feel it?" asked the red-eyed man.

"No, I don't — " I started to say but then I stopped myself because it wasn't true. I did feel something. I felt power coursing through my body. It lasted just a couple of seconds and then I felt normal again, but I felt newer. I felt bigger. It was as if the entire universe had been compressed down into my body.

"Now you do," said the hooded entity.

"What power did you give me exactly?" I asked whilst moving and examining my arms, trying to feel any sort of power.

"I gave you what they did not want you to have," he said.

"These vague answers you're giving me are really annoying," I said.

He smirked. "I'm sorry. I try and be as plain as I can in my statements without giving away information that you are not yet meant to have."

I said nothing.

"You'll soon come to know that you had powers of your own already," he said. "They were given to you by the them, but they locked the majority of it away because they feared it. I unlocked it."

"What powers are you talking about?" I asked.

"I cannot say. That is further along the line. To give it to you would be to put a knot in the line which would be quite disruptive."

I sighed, not even questioning it this time. I just had to let him ramble even if I don't understand what he's saying.

"You said you had multiple gifts for me," I said.

"Correct. I've given you the orb and the key. I have one more, but it cannot be yours yet."

"Why not?"

"Because of that." He pointed at the sword that's been tormenting me.

"What?" I said.

"This hallway we're in is a game that they've created for you. It has one possible outcome where you end up wielding that sword and you're also forever under their control."

"So how do I get out of the game without grabbing the sword?"

"I'll have to modify it. That is my final gift. I already did, partially. But that was just so you and I would have the opportunity to talk. I'll modify it again and give you an escape route. They've programmed the end of this game to align with your transition to the abnormal."

"What?"

"The game ends soon. You will absolutely need that sword or else you'll die. That's the game."

"Uhh, you never mentioned that."

"You are by no means to grab that sword. Heed my words. When the situation is dire, know that a line runs in two ways. Take no steps."

"Is that a riddle?"

"No. It's simple enough. Remember those words. I must go now. Do not grab that sword. And a quick warning: absolutely no one is to know of our encounter or even of my existence, understand? Not your mother, not your future wife or husband. No animal, person, or deity is to know of me. There are to be zero exceptions."

"Wait—" I started to say but he put a hand on my chest and shoved me backward, causing me to exit the black hallway and return to the real world. I was on my back and looking up at my classmates who were staring at me.

A girl with curly red hair and freckles all over her face was looking at me with an amused expression. "Seriously, Jackson," she said. "With how often you fall down you're spending more time on the floor than on your feet." This earned a few snickers from the other students.

"Screw off, Nancy," I replied whilst getting to my feet.

"Are you alright, Mr. Jackson?" asked our crippled teacher, Mr. Brunner.

"I'm fine, sir," I said.

"If you're sure," he said. "I guess this is a good point for us to take a break. Go ahead and rest and meet back here in thirty minutes."

I sat down on a nearby bench next to Grover.

"Seriously, dude," Grover said. "Why do you keep on blacking out like that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.

"What do you mean you don't know what I'm talking about?" he said. "You keep fainting!"

"I don't faint," I said. "I'm just clumsy. I trip."

"No, you're fainting. One moment you're perfectly fine and the next you freeze up and fall down like a rag doll."

"I just fall weird."

"Dude — " Grover started to say before he was interrupted by Mrs. Dodds.

"Mr. Jackson," she said. She was staring at me menacingly with more malice in her eyes than I'd ever seen before. "Could I speak with you a moment?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," I said and stood.

"Percy — " Grover said. His eyes were wide and full of terror.

"You are to stay here, Mr. Underwood," said Mrs. Dodds.

"A — alright," he said shakily.

"I'll be fine, man," I said and followed Mrs. Dodds.

She led the two of us deeper into the museum until we were in a deserted section. There were no other people in sight.

"Your scheming is at an end," Mrs. Dodds said to me.

"I'm sorry?" I said.

"You will give back what you stole."

"Uh, I didn't steal anything. You're probably looking for Nancy."

"Do not lie to me!"

I was going to continue to refute her nonsensical claims before she started to change. Her fingers grew into talons and her jacket melted into bat wings. Her skin shriveled up and she ended up looking like an anorexic bat-demon-woman.

I took two steps backward to get away from her.

"Die, honey!" she said. It looked as if she were about to lunge at me but all of a sudden I wasn't in the museum anymore. I was back in that black hallway staring at the sword again. I was within reach of grabbing it and was almost tempted to, but I knew otherwise.

I stood still. ' _When the situation is dire, know that a line runs in two ways. Take no steps._ ' Those are the words the strange man told me to remember. I started off with the last three words, ' _take no steps_.' Simple enough. I didn't move.

I assumed time was frozen on the outside, so as long as I don't move I have plenty of time to save my own life, right?

' _When the situation is dire._ ' Yep, the situation is definitely dire.

' _Know that a line runs in two ways_.' Okay, what does that mean? A hallway is kind of like a line. So this hallway runs in two ways. I've only ever looked forward and seen the sword. So I should turn around?

I tested my theory and turned around. Two feet away from me I saw the most magnificent object I've ever seen. It was a bright white trident standing straight up as tall as I am. The entire thing was adorned with neat abstract designs of thin blue metal lines running along the weapon.

I reached out my hand to grab it but before my hand touched it a piece of paper appeared in my hand. It read, ' _My final gift to you. You'll know how to use it. Also, when you see the knitting hags tell them they lost the game. - Entity_ '

After reading through the note I dropped it and it evaporated. I grabbed the handle of the trident and instantly a wave of knowledge and power rushed through me. It was as if I'd been wielding the weapon my whole life and it was a part of me. I somehow knew its name was Krinos, which meant 'Lily' in ancient Greek. The feeling of power dissipated as quickly as it began, but I still felt strong with Krinos in my hands. I felt my muscles twitch with memory, and I realized I knew how to fight with this thing.

I turned around again and then the hallway melted away. It was different this time. Instead of being instantaneously transported back to real life I saw the black walls fade back to reality and the blurry form of the demon Dodds frozen mid lunge become crisper and clearer.

I took advantage of this and swung Krinos forward and impaled Dodds on the end of the trident just as time resumed.

Mrs. Dodds's talons slashed down and didn't even come close to hitting me. It took her a second to notice the trident she was impaled on. She looked up at me in shock and then exploded into yellow dust. The blue lines on Krinos glowed red momentarily before returning to its original blue. I now felt a bit stronger.

As if it were second nature to me I twirled the trident around and it disappeared. I could feel a tattoo forming on my back. I didn't have to look at it to know exactly how the trident tattoo looked.

I looked around the room and saw Mr. Brunner at the entrance of the room looking at me with shock on his face. I stared at him awkwardly.

"Uh, I can explain," I said.

Mr. Brunner seemed to be shaken out of his shock by my speaking. "Perseus, come with me. We have much to discuss."

"Alright," I said. "It may look look like I just killed my math teacher but in reality — "

"Relax, Perseus. You're not in trouble. Follow me." He started to wheel away and I followed.

We walked (I walked. He rolled.) until we reached the area where Grover and most of the rest of our classmates were.

"Grover," Mr. Brunner said. "Come with us."

Grover looked at me and a look of relief washed over his face as he got up and started to walk with us.

We reached the outside of the museum where no one else was. Mr. Brunner lead us to a bench on the side of the building and instructed Grover and I to sit.

"Did she do it?" Grover asked.

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said. "Alecto has struck at Percy. For what reason we do not yet know."

"Alecto?" I said.

"She is a kindly one," Grover said. "She was pretending to be our math teacher to spy on you."

"Why me? And what's a kindly one?"

"Perhaps it's best to start from the beginning," Mr. Brunner said. "I've been teaching you of the Greek myths this past year, correct?"

"Yeah," I said.

"They are not myths. They are facts. The Greek gods do exist, as do all the monsters from the tales."

I said nothing as I took time to comprehend that. "Really? Where's your proof?"

Mr. Brunner chuckled. "Grover and I are proof. Grover is a satyr and I am Chiron."

"Chiron? The legendary centaur trainer of heroes?"

"Yes."

"But shouldn't you be dead? It's been thousands of years."

"Yes, that is true. There will be time for more of this later. For now we must get to camp."

"Why are we going to camp now?" Grover asked.

"Matters have changed," Chiron said. "Percy already seems to have obtained a magical weapon. From where, I do not know. Perhaps it's a gift from his father."

"I can't say where I got it," I said.

"Hmm. I'm not surprised."

"What weapon?" Grover asked.

Without thinking about it I extended my hand and Krinos appeared on my palm and I felt the tattoo on my back disappear. It didn't even take any effort. It was truly as if the trident were a part of me.

The two half-humans stared in awe at the weapon before I twirled Krinos and she turned back into a tattoo on my back.

"How are we getting to camp?" Grover asked finally.

"I'll take us," Chiron said.

"But what about school? And my mom?" I asked.

"I'll handle that."

Before I could question him he planted both of his arms on the sides of his wheelchair and pushed up. Instead of standing, two horse legs erupted from some sort of pocket dimension followed by two others. Now a full centaur was standing in front of a wheel chair occupied with a pair of fake human legs. Chiron turned around and picked up the wheelchair and placed it on his back, but at the last second it turned into a saddle.

"Hop on," Chiron said.

"You want us to ride you?" I said.

"Yes," he said.

Grover got on his back and then I followed. Chiron began to slowly walk forward and then began increasing speed until he was in a full gallop. And then somehow in just a minute we were stopped in front of a large pine tree, completely out of the city.

Grover and I slid from Chiron's horse back and stood on very green grass.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Camp Half-Blood," said Grover.

"That sounds a bit racist," I commented.

"Half-Blood is a synonym for demigod, Percy," said Chiron.

"As in half man, half god?"

"Correct."

I looked around and examined the camp for the first time. There were twelve cabins in a U shape. Each one was very unique and bore no similarity to one another.

To one side of the cabins was a large forest and to the other were fields of some kind of red fruit.

There were a couple other structures but their purposes were unidentifiable from here.

Chiron began to walk down the hill we were standing on and Grover and I followed.

As we walked I glanced at Grover and noticed something.

"Where are your crutches?" I asked.

"I don't need them," he said.

"Then why did — ?"

"It was to put mortals off of the fact that I'm a satyr."

"Yeah Chiron mentioned that. What does it mean?"

"Chiron didn't get around to teaching that part. A satyr is half goat."

"You're half goat?"

"Yep."

"Chiron?" a voice said.

I looked up and saw a girl with curly blonde hair walking up to us. She looked to be around my age. She wore an orange t-shirt that read 'Camp Half-Blood' and a pair of shorts. I also noticed she had stormy grey eyes that looked calculating, as if she were solving a thousand math equations at once.

"Ah, hello Annabeth," said Chiron.

"Why are you already back?" the grey-eyed girl asked.

"This is Perseus. I was watching over him when a fury attacked him. He held her off."

"You killed a fury?" Annabeth asked me.

"Apparently," I said.

"Grover," Chiron said. "We must get you to the council. You have succeeded in your mission."

A look of absolute joy spread over Grover's face.

"Annabeth," Chiron said. "Please give Percy a tour of the camp and explain everything to him."

"Okay," she said.

Chiron nodded and then trotted off with Grover practically skipping next to him.

"Why is he so happy?" I asked Annabeth.

"He gets to live out his dream," she said. "You know who the god Pan is?"

"The god of cookware?"

Annabeth smirked. "No," she said.

"The god of Mexican bread treats."

"He's the god of the wild. Satyrs see him as their lord and worship him. But he's gone missing."

"How does a god go missing?"

"Lots of ways. He could have been captured by another good, although that's highly unlikely. He could have gone into hiding. He could have faded, which is what most believe to be the case."

"Faded?"

"It's the godly way of dying. A god can't die. They're immortal. But they can fade out of existence if their worship dies out."

"There must not be many satyrs then," I said.

"There are other ways for a god to fade. For instance if the object of the god's domain ceases to exist."

"I see. There's little wild left on earth."

"But the satyrs refuse to see that. They believe Pan to still be alive. So they send them out to search for him. They're called searchers. It's every satyr's dream to be one. They can only become one once they've escorted a demigod safely back to camp and then the Council of Cloven Elders can give them a searcher's license."

"So Grover's going to get a searcher's license now?"

"He might. They could deny it to him because Chiron was technically the one that brought you back to camp, but I think he'll get it."

"I hope he does."

"Well," said Annabeth. "Let me show you around."

* * *

After we'd finished the tour we ended up in front of the Hermes cabin. Annabeth knocked on the door and it opened revealing a tall and handsome man of around college age. He had short-cropped sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. He had an athletic build and a thick scar that ran from the bottom of his eye down to his chin.

He smiled at the sight of us. "Hey Annabeth," he said.

"Hi Luke," she said with a slight blush. "This is Percy. He's a new camper."

"Unclaimed, I assume?" he said to me.

Before I could state my confusion Annabeth said, "Yes."

"You show him around camp yet?"

She nodded.

"Great. I was just about to spar, he could join me. You ever held a sword before?"

"He just got here. You want to train him already?"

"Where else has he got to be?"

"I don't use swords," I said.

"No?" Luke said. "You already have a preference?"

I shrugged.

"Alright then. I'll take him from here, Annabeth."

Annabeth split off and Luke led me to the arena.

When we got there we went to the armory. Luke picked up a sword and stepped aside, revealing the arsenal to me.

"Take your pick," he said.

I looked around for a second and spotted a sleek silver gauntlet. I picked it up and slid it onto my left hand. It fit perfectly.

"Fits like a glove," I said before rolling my own eyes at myself.

"Huh," Luke said. "That gauntlet has been sitting in here for decades. Many have tried it on but it never perfectly fit them."

"Then call me Cinderella," I said. "Let's go."

"Don't you want a weapon?" Luke asked.

"I think I'll make do with this."

I stepped out of the armory and into the arena. Luke followed.

"Well let's spar then, brawler," Luke said whilst raising his sword at me.

"I'm ready," I said and held up my armored hand defensively.

Luke swung his sword and I absorbed the impact with my gauntlet. I swung my unarmored fist at Luke but he sidestepped and swung his sword again. This time I summoned Krinos and caught the blade in its prongs. I twisted the trident and Luke's sword fell to the ground. I swung the weapon around and smacked Luke in the side with the end of the trident. He fell to his back and I leveled my weapon at his throat. It was exhilarating, and easy. It felt as if I'd been dueling for my entire life.

I moved Krinos so that it stood tall on the ground with my hand holding it steady and Luke got up.

"The element of surprise can be a very useful tool in combat," he said, after staring at me in slight awe for a few seconds. "Good one."

"Thanks," I said.

"Where'd you get the trident?"

"It was a gift."

"From whom?"

"Can't say."

His eyes narrowed.

"How many monsters have you killed with that thing?" he asked.

"One," I answered. "They called it a fury."

"A fury? Impressive. Who trained you?"

"Trained?"

"Who taught you to fight?"

"No one. I'd never even wielded this thing before today."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Believe it. Now pick up your sword. Let's go again."

* * *

Luke said I was something of a prodigy, although I could tell he didn't believe it. He knew I was hiding something, but didn't think too much of it. He mentioned that several demigods in camp have had mysterious pasts and encounters with gods/monsters before coming to camp, so I wasn't out of the ordinary. He was still annoyed that we sparred several times and I managed to beat him every time.

Luke started looking both frustrated and curious by the time we were done. I kind of felt bad for him. From what I understood he's the best swordsman at this camp and it's my first time holding a weapon yet I'm better than him.

Luke said I could keep the gauntlet. I don't know what use it'll be but it's light and durable so I see no downside to wearing it. I have no place to store it and it's not really that big a burden so I didn't bother taking it off.

We headed to the dining pavilion after we finished our sparring. There were twelve tables, each one holding a varying amount of campers. The two that held the most were Aphrodite and Hermes. I was sitting at the latter because I still didn't know who my godly parent was and the Hermes cabin held all of what were called "the unclaimed".

I still found it strange, the whole Greek pantheon existing and my being a demigod. Of course I couldn't not have believed it because I rode a centaur here in mere seconds, but it was still a lot to take in.

Before we ate we burned a portion of our food at the hearth as a sacrifice to the gods.

I finished my plate in less than ten minutes. As I took my last bite I noticed someone sitting at the hearth. It was a nine year-old girl with black hair poking at the coals. Her eyes were filled with flames but looked welcoming, contrary to fire's destructiveness.

I stood from the table and walked over to her.

She watched me the entire time with a curious expression on her face.

"Lady Hestia," I said after kneeling in front of her. I remembered her from when Chiron explained her tale just a few days ago.

"You recognize me," she said in a slightly surprised tone.

"I must admit I had trouble believing that the gods existed, but now I don't."

"Most demigods are more shocked when they meet a god or goddess for the first time."

"I'm not like most demigods."

"You would say that yet you've hardly had a taste of this side of the world."

"Well prove me wrong then. Show me that I'm no different than anyone else in this camp."

"I can't do that."

"Of course you can't."

She hesitated and stared at me for a couple of seconds. "You're quite intelligent, Percy Jackson."

"That's the first time I've ever heard that."

"And it may well be the last." She stopped for a second. "Why don't you prove it to me?"

"Prove what?"

"That you're not like most demigods."

"Do you know what's on my back?"

"Something very powerful," Hestia said, followed by a minor pause. "Something that's not Greek."

"If it's not Greek then where did I get it?"

She stopped poking the coals and looked straight at me. The flames in her eyes died out revealing a regular pair of brown eyes. Somehow she looked more menacing this way. "I don't know," she said slowly.

We stared at each other for a whole minute.

"You don't like me," I said at last.

"What gives you that idea?" she said with all warmth gone.

"Everyone loves you. You're the pure one, the virgin goddess. Your domain is family and home as well as the hearth. Everyone sees you as the kind goddess. You're everyone's friend. You're welcoming to even Hades. I didn't think it possible for you to dislike someone."

"You know nothing."

"For now," I said and got to my feet. I glanced around at the tables and no one even paid me nor the goddess any attention. When I looked back to the hearth Hestia was gone.

* * *

The next couple of weeks flew by pretty fast. Everyday we'd operate on a different schedule. There were several different activities that each cabin did independently. I was terrible at archery and didn't really care for music. I was excellent at combat and horseback riding. I wasn't too great at smithing either.

On top of that Annabeth also did one-on-one Greek history lessons where she taught me about all the gods and monsters and stuff that exists. She also mentioned that the god of wine, Dionysus, used to be camp director until he was called to Olympus and never came back the day I arrived. I found that quite odd but didn't think too much of it.

The thing I was looking forward to was capture the flag. The Hermes cabin teamed with the Athena cabin as well as a couple others, which meant that I was on the team with Annabeth and Luke. We were up against the Ares cabin who teamed with the rest of the participating cabins.

The Athena cabin was the one making the battle strategies, of course. Annabeth ended up putting me with Luke on the offensive. Annabeth was leading a small group to distract the opposing team's defense and we had another group to lead their offense astray. The rest of our team was positioned around our flag and the stream dividing our two sides as defense.

Finally the game began. We started of at the edge of the forest where Chiron went over the rules. No killing, no maiming, magic weapons are allowed, etc. Then the teams split to their separate flags and we waited for the signal.

After a minute a conch horn sounded and our team ran off to their assigned positions.

I summoned Krinos in my right hand and ran alongside Luke through the forest. I wore my silver gauntlet on my left hand and a borrowed leather chestplate and greaves.

As Annabeth predicted we ran into enemy campers at the stream. There were three of them standing guard, two guys and a girl. All had the builds of Ares campers.

I took the left one and Luke took the right. The other one was trying to get at us but couldn't get a hit in. I twirled my trident around blocking every single strike my opponent made. Finally I knocked his sword to the left. Although he held on I was able to smack the end of Krinos into his head and he fell unconscious.

Luke had also defeated his opponent so it was me and him versus the female. She swung at Luke but he blocked the attack. She parried his next swing and then swiped at me. I rolled under the attack and arched Krinos into her legs and she fell to her back. I stabbed the prongs of Krinos into the ground trapping her sword. As she tried to get up Luke hit her head with the hilt of his sword and she was knocked out.

"Nice," Luke said.

"You like me better on your team," I noted.

He smirked. We continued through the forest until we found a clearing. There was a hill with a pole sticking up that had a banner attached to it.

Luke and I stopped to observe the scene. There were a total of eight guards. There was a pair to the left and right and three in front. The last three were hidden among the bushes. They thought they were hidden, but we could see them.

"The back is unguarded," Luke said.

"They're turning around too frequently," I said. "We can't take it by stealth."

"Hmm," Luke said.

"I can take out the hidden ones without anyone noticing. Then I'll distract the other five while you take the flag and run back to the Fist unnoticed."

"That could work. Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Definitely."

"Alright. Do your thing, man."

I snuck off through the bushes. The hidden guards were placed strategically. Every single one could be at the flag in seconds should they sense danger, yet they were also pretty close to the natural path leading to the stream. And somehow they were all out of each other's sights. I don't think that last part was intentional.

The first one was dangerously close to the other five guards. I quietly stalked up behind him and covered his mouth, and dragged him to the ground. He struggled, but I was able to knock him out with the end of his own sword quietly.

I then took a wide arc to avoid detection then came around to the second guard. Again, I quietly stalked up behind her but this time she was far enough away so that the five guards wouldn't notice my attack. I summoned Krinos and smacked her in the head with the blunt end hard. She crumpled to the ground. I repeated that process with the last guard.

Now that all three were down, I moved on to the next five. I stepped out into the open and two of the guards spotted me immediately. I walked unarmed to them casually.

"Man," I said. "The other team is terrible at this. I'd hate to be on their team. Wouldn't you, teammates?"

They didn't even say anything and charged at me. One of them had a bow and was loosing arrows at me.

"Friendly fire!" I yelled and summoned Krinos. I dodged the arrows and swung my trident to parry the sword strikes of the other two. I didn't move to attack them, but played defensively whilst moving towards the rest of the guards.

Soon all five were staring at me but only two attacked. I swung Krinos to block any attack then swiped it upward, cutting a deep gash into the shoulder of one of my opponents. He fell down and clutched his wound.

Two more entered our little dance. I cut the leg of one of them and they collapsed giving room for the last guard to drop their bow and enter the fray with a dagger.

That was my cue to lead them away from the banner so that Luke could take it.

I turned and ran and the three others followed. It didn't take long to reach more enemy campers. There was a group of five of them and they turned and tried to get at me as well. I continued running.

Soon we reached the stream where a couple of my allies were standing guard.

"Are you sure you should be attacking _us_?" I asked the five that had just entered the battle. "Those three are the idiots that left their flag unguarded."

It actually worked. The big one who's name I knew to be Clarrise turned on her teammates and screamed, "Is our flag seriously unguarded?!"

Realization dawned on the three guard's faces. They turned and ran back to the hill.

Just as Clarrise and the other four were going to attack me and my teammates, a sandy-haired person ran out of the trees carrying a flag and crossed the stream with no one chasing him.

A conch horn blew and shortly after Chiron galloped through the trees.

"We have a winner!" he declared.

The rest of the campers came into the clearing and either celebrated or groaned. I spotted Annabeth next to Luke and I walked over to them.

As I crossed the stream gasps erupted and everyone stared at me. I looked around confusedly. Chiron stepped forward and bent his front two legs forward and said, "Hail Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon."

Everyone else started to bow as well. I looked up and saw a glowing green trident in a circle spinning above my head like a hologram.

* * *

After that I was moved from the Hermes cabin to the Poseidon cabin, where I was all alone. The "big three" gods (Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon) had made a pact long time ago to not have any more demigod children. Zeus broke the pact once and gave birth to Thalia Grace who died around five years ago and became the pine tree that provides the camp with its magic borders. Poseidon broke the pact when he had me. Hades hasn't broken the pact yet.

Being in my own cabin was pretty cool. I didn't have to worry about any thieving cabin mates and I got to decide my own schedule. It was pretty great.

As the next week went by I kept reaching for that orb in my pocket. The first time I'd tried to pick it up my attempt succeeded. I'd held it in my hand and stared at it whilst remembering what the entity told me about it. He'd said that I'm supposed to swallow it when I learn the 'truth of this world' and it'll reveal the 'deeper truth'.

The fact that I was able to remove it from my pocket meant that I now knew the 'truth of this world'. It was easy enough to deduce that that was referring to the existence of the gods and my being a demigod.

But I also deduced that he kept referring to the gods when he said 'they'. So far I've had no qualms with the gods and I knew that I would as soon as I swallowed the orb.

I knew I'd have to swallow the orb sooner or later but I wanted to delay it for as long as possible. And I'd just learned of my father's identity. Swallowing the orb could mean being without a father again.

And for the icing on the cake, if I were to be on the gods' bad sides that'd also mean losing all the friends I've made here at camp.

My hesitation to learn the truth ended one day after training.

Luke and I were sparring (as cabin leader of the Poseidon cabin I got to decide to take my swordsmanship activity at the same time as the Hermes cabin) and I ended up knocking him to the ground and his sent sword flying. The activity ended and we left the arena. I separated from the Hermes kids and made toward the beach. But as I was walking I spotted something in the forest.

I changed route and stepped under the canopy. I walked for maybe fifteen feet until I found a clearing with three old ladies sitting on rocks and holding a glowing ball of thread. The one on the right was holding the ball and unspooling it. The one in the middle guided it to the one on the left who was knitting. They looked straight at me with anger in their eyes.

"You lost the game," I said.

The middle one reached into her pocket and a sense of danger erupted in me as I saw a glint of silver.

Without thinking I summoned Krinos and shoved it straight into the middle one's throat. She and I were equally surprised to find that she bled. Golden ichor poured from three holes in her throat. The blue lines on my trident momentarily turned red before returning to its original color. Again I felt just the slightest bit more powerful.

The other two didn't seem to notice somehow. Their eyes were locked on me. The left one even smirked.

"You think you can kill a Fate?" she said.

The middle one toppled over and fell face first to the ground with a look of horror on her face. The ichor pooled around her corpse as before our eyes she began to turn ashy grey and corroded into nothing.

The other two looked up in complete shock at me.

"What have you done?!" one screamed.

I took a second to comprehend my action. "I killed a Fate," I said, still not fully believing it.

"We'll kill you for that, Perseus Jackson!" one yelled.

Suddenly my vision rippled. Reality warped before my eyes and the colors melted together to form a new image, somewhere else. I saw the camp from a bird's eye view. At the border of the camp near the pine tree was the minotaur. The two remaining Fates were standing beside it with their eyes rolled up into the back of their heads and their hands raised like zombies. The Minotaur slashed at the tree over and over again until it fell down and the camp's magical boundaries destroyed with it.

Then my vision returned to normal and the Fates were staring at me angrily again.

Maybe it was too much to assume, but I'm pretty sure that that vision was a premonition of the future. I turned and ran toward the edge of camp. When I peeked behind me the two Fates had disappeared. I sprinted as fast as I could toward the pine tree, not stopping to answer anyone.

I reached the pine tree and I saw the Minotaur running up the hill towards me. It had a faint golden glow around it and its eyes were solid blue. At the base of the hill the Fates looked just as they did in the vision, with rolled back eyes and outstretched arms.

The Minotaur charged extremely fast. Without thinking, I summoned Krinos and threw it like a javelin at the beast.

It staggered a bit on impact but continued its charge. I willed the trident to reappear in my hand. The bull-man ran whilst scarlet blood poured from three holes in his chest.

I walked toward him a bit so as to keep Thalia's tree from harm. I stood my ground with my trident in hand. Finally, just as the beast was going to impale me with its horns, I rolled to the side and the monster kept forward. It realized what happened and tried to stop but ended up tripping and falling due to the slope of the hill. I ran up to it and stabbed it in the head with Krinos. Then I removed it and trusted it into his skull again. Finally, the beast burst into golden dust and I heard two simultaneous shrill shrieks. Krinos's blue lines momentarily turned red and I felt ever slightly more powerful.

After the adrenaline and excitement wore off, I looked down the hill and saw the two Fates on their hands and knees panting. I drew back my right arm and launched Krinos at them, but with a flash of light they were gone and Krinos was stuck in the ground where they once stood.

I walked over to my trident and kneeled next to it. I don't know why but somehow I knew the remaining two Fates had left for good. It appeared that whatever magic they used to summon/control the Minotaur exhausted them.

I gripped Krinos for support and stood before removing the weapon from the ground and dismissed it back into a tattoo on my back. I then walked back to the pine tree and sat down, leaning my back and head against it whilst I went over the events that had just occurred in my head.

I'd just killed a goddess. Atropos, if I recalled my lessons with Annabeth correctly. Or perhaps I didn't kill her. Maybe it was a trick for them to think I had. But how would that benefit them?

And the reason I killed her (if I actually did kill her) was still fresh in my mind. I knew who they were when it started. And the biggest thing I recalled from what Annabeth had taught me about them was the fact that if the Fates stare at you and cut the thread, that means you're about to die. I saw the flash of silver and knew I needed to stop the thread from being cut.

The thing that kept bothering me was that vision I'd had. The Fates determine the future and destiny and all that. So why would I be able to see the future? I don't get it.

I had so many questions running through my mind and I knew only one way to answer them: the orb. I reached into my pocket and drew out the tiny sphere. I stared at it for a while, as if its sole purpose was to turn my entire life upside down, and I needed to say goodbye to the happiness I've felt these past few of weeks.

Finally, I put the orb on my tongue and it rolled down my throat of its own free will.

Then the world shattered. Fragments of reality broke away and fell like shards of broken glass until I sat in complete darkness.

Soon colors started to spread through the emptiness. The colors took shape and before I knew it I was back in the world, but I was somewhere else.

Then the colors blurred together before becoming crisp again and I was somewhere else. Then I was somewhere else, then somewhere else. Again and again my location changed until I was back in blackness.

I saw things. I saw a lot of things. Each time the scene changed I saw a terrible event take place. And by terrible event I'm talking about some horrible things the gods did.

I watched Artemis murder innocent men for no reason. I watched her abduct little girls who lived happily and force them to join her hunt. I watched her seduce men and lure them into vulnerable states to kill them.

I watched Apollo forcefully take girls' virginities. I watched him have sex with girls as young as twelve.

I watched my own father strike down the ships of simple fishermen and tourists while slave ships miraculously sailed free.

I watched Hestia not only allow but enforce the act of burning babies as sacrifices to the gods. I also watched her burn entire houses with families in them. It's also to note that she is no virgin goddess as she may just be almost as sexually active as Aphrodite.

I watched Hephaestus build machines that destroyed and ravaged entire communities.

I watched Ares personally take part in war after war, murdering whatever man, woman, or child who could put an end to it, regardless of the side they were on.

God after god I saw committing heinous act after heinous act. And it wasn't just Olympians that I saw, either. I saw minor gods as well. I saw every single god and goddess commit hundreds of atrocities each. Every god but one.

The visions ended and I was back in the empty darkness, seething with anger.

"That's only a portion of their crimes," I heard someone say.

I looked up and saw a familiar pair of red eyes.

"You know what you're capable of," the Entity said. "You know what you have to do now."

"But how can I?" I asked. "I'm one demigod against all the gods."

"Seek out the good god. You've gained the power to get there."

I didn't entirely understand what he meant but I nodded anyway.

"You are to leave camp without anyone noticing," he said. "No one is to come with you. You go alone."

"Will I be able to see my friends again?" I asked.

"The two you are closest with," he said. "Eventually one will join you and the other will be your enemy."

Before I could say more the blackness faded away and I was back at Thalia's pine tree. I glanced at the sun. No time had passed even though it felt like hours.

I summoned Krinos and held it for support as I stood. I turned and took one last look at camp then began walking down the hill away from my home.

No time had passed, yet everything had changed.

* * *

 **A/N: If you're new to this story, welcome! I'm only writing this author's note to let you know that my alternate universe does not include any other pantheon than Greek, even Roman. Characters like Jason and Reyna do not exist, although Leo and Piper do. If you intend on reading my completed story all the way through, I want you to know what to expect from it.**

 **Side note: I guarantee that my writing improves over the course of this story. It took me nearly a year and half to write this story, but I learned a lot along the way. So if you're not completely impressed with the first chapter but are still interested in the idea of this story, I beg you'll bear with me.**


	2. Good God

Hades is the one god that I didn't see in the orb. That means he's the good god. Kind of ironic, isn't it? Although it does sort of make sense. He's the god of the dead. He rules the underworld. He knows the evilness of death and torture better than anyone. He can sympathize with mortals and demigods. Plus, more deaths equals more work for him, right?

But how do I get to the Underworld? The entity said that I'd acquired the power to get there, but I have no recollection of the sort.

So in the end I did the only thing that made sense: I just started walking as far from camp as possible.

It bothered me, though. All those demigods were technically my family. They all had gods for parents yet none of them knew how horrible their parents were. They burnt their own food in the gods' names multiple times a day because "they like the smell of it". If it were up to me I'd walk right back into camp and tell everyone exactly what the gods were: monsters.

But I couldn't, for many reasons. One, they most likely wouldn't believe me. Two, it'd put them all at risk. It'd start an open rebellion against all of Olympus and what's a camp of demigods compared to that? They'd all be dead in a week and it'd be because I couldn't keep my mouth shut. No, they need to remain oblivious. This crusade I'm embarking upon is mine and mine alone (and Hades's too, I guess.)

After maybe twenty minutes of walking I decided to stop because wandering around aimlessly isn't going to get me to the Underworld. I'd reached a large river and stood at the edge of it. As much as I now hate my father, I'm still the son of the sea god. The water is where I drew power from. It helps me think.

I summoned Krinos and dipped the three prongs into the river. Water started flowing up the weapon like snakes before reaching my fingers. As the water ran across my skin I felt a sudden rush of stamina. I closed my eyes and then stepped into the river. I walked forward until I was at the bottom of the body of water.

I sat and examined my loyal weapon. I've spent more time staring at it than I care to admit, but how could I not? It's beauty is mesmerizing. The elegant shape, the pearly white of the metal, the navy blue lines that run along it like veins, the three razor sharp prongs and the way they curve. Yet it's a mystery to me. I know almost nothing about it. I know how to use it and where it goes when I'm not killing it. I know that it's blue lines turn red whenever I kill something. But that's the extent of my knowledge.

As I was about to leave the water my vision rippled. I saw myself from a third person point of view, but I was no longer on a river bed. I was in some sort of dungeon. There was a cell door open and I was standing just in front of it facing a man of around forty. He was very tall and lean with very pale skin. He had shoulder-length black hair and black eyes. He also had a neatly trimmed beard that covered the lower half of his face. He was Hades, and he was holding Krinos and examining it.

"This is a very powerful weapon," he said to me. "I cannot identify the metal it's made from nor the source of its powers. Where did you get this?"

"I can't say," I watched myself say.

"It holds a very interesting ability. You said the lines turn red when you kill something? I believe what it's doing is absorbing power from whatever it is you killed and imbuing itself into you. Not too much power, just a portion. That's why you're not immortal from killing Atropos. You can just see the future, or a potential future at the very least."

"I—" my future me started to say but stopped abruptly. Then he looked right up at me and the vision ended and I was back in my body on the river bed staring at Krinos.

So whenever I kill something with Krinos I gain some kind of ability from them. I got random visions of the future from Atropos. I don't know what I got from the Minotaur but I must've gotten a way to get into the Underworld from the fury.

I willed the water to push me to the surface then swam to the shore. I held Krinos with its base on the ground and tried to create a portal to the Underworld. Nothing happened but a word did somehow appear in my mind: Vistïko.

I said the word aloud and suddenly the lines on Krinos turned black. I waited for something to happen but nothing did so I experimented. I twirled Krinos around and then stabbed its three prongs into the earth beneath my feet..

The black lines returned to blue and then the ground started to crack, spreading from where Krinos impacted the ground. The ground crumbled and a hole opened up. Then I was falling.

I fell for at least a minute. The hole I'd entered through closed and I was diving through a pitch black chasm. Finally, I saw the ground beneath me. It loomed closer and closer and I started to panic. I stabbed Krinos into the curved wall, hanging on with both hands. My momentum dragged me slightly further but my descent slowed until I stopped completely. I could see ashy ground ten feet below me. I dismissed Krinos and fell, landing hard on my legs and crumpling to my hands and knees.

I got to my feet and examined my surroundings. There was flat terrain all around, all covered in ash. There were some dead trees sticking up. In the distance I could see a magnificent black castle. When I looked up I saw no sign of a ceiling nor the hole I fell through. I was in the Fields of Asphodel.

I had a perfect sense of direction and knew every inch of the Underworld. I must have also gotten that from killing the fury. I began to walk toward the black castle. I didn't see any sign of life for miles around. As I came closer to the dark palace I spotted a cave at the edge of the Fields. I knew it lead to Tartarus and I didn't want to go anywhere near that.

Finally, I reached a black gate and pushed it open without an issue. I was surprised to find that the grounds leading up to the castle was covered in flowers and grass. I walked along the cobblestone path that separated the vegetation and reached the large dark brown doors. There was a silver skull shaped knocker on each one. I grabbed one and slammed it against the door several times.

The door slowly opened of its own free will and I walked down a large hallway with many doors to either side. Thanks to the fury I knew exactly which door led to the throne room and opened it without knocking.

I'd barely glanced Hades and Persephone sitting on their thrones when suddenly I was tackled to my knees and had chains binding my arms to my side. I looked over my shoulder and saw two furies that looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds holding the chains and keeping me bound.

"Ahh," I heard an oily voice say. I looked straight and saw Hades on his feet in front of his throne and looking at me with curiosity on his face. Persephone remained on her throne and looked mildly interested. I remembered what I'd seen of her in the orb and anger started to boil up in me. "You've got quite a record on you for only being aware of your power for so short a time. You killed my fury Alecto, you supposedly stole Zeus's master bolt, you defeated the Minotaur. Oh, and what else? Oh yeah. You somehow managed to kill a goddess."

"I never stole any master bolt," I said admitting to everything else by not denying them.

"Hmm," is all he said. "Whatever it is, Zeus will be very pleased with me when I bring you to him. But the next Olympian council meeting isn't for two weeks. I guess you'll just have to wait in a cell until then."

I recalled my vision I'd seen of me and Hades. He wasn't acting hostile then. And I was in a dungeon. He must be putting on an act because of his wife.

"Take him to the dungeons," the lord of the dead said.

There was a yank on my chains and I was pulled to my feet before being dragged out of the throne room.

* * *

I spent around five hours in that cell before Hades came and visited me.

"Took you long enough," I said.

"I had to wait for Persephone to go to sleep first," said the god. "Why are you here, Perseus Jackson?"

"To see you," I said.

"Why?"

"Because you're the only god I don't want to kill."

"You know that Olympus is in mayhem because of you. You've got them scared. They're offering me a throne on Olympus if I bring you in."

"Why would you want to be an Olympian? You hate the other gods."

"You're correct. I have nothing to gain from turning you in, and everything to gain for assisting you."

"Alright," I said. "So set me free."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Persephone."

"You know when I said "only god that I don't want to kill" that — "

"Yes, yes, I know. My wife must die. I have no qualms with that. My love for her died a while ago. I know who she is and what she's done."

"So what's the problem?"

"If she dies then my position is compromised. My siblings fear me and outcast me, but they still respect me. I'm not as valuable to you if they know I'm their enemy. And even though they're scared of me, I'm no match against all of them at once."

"You're afraid they'll kill you?"

"No. They can't kill me. No god can kill another god. You're the only person alive who has that ability. But they can capture me and give my domain to someone else and dampen my powers. Then I'll be unable to train you."

"I don't need training. I know how to fight."

"Against demigods, but your skills are nothing compared to a god yet. Plus, there's more to be taught than just combat."

"Fine. Let me out and train me."

"Our training will take place in here. I cannot risk Persephone learning of my true allegiance."

"So, I'm just going to be stuck in this cell forever?"

"No. In two weeks I will bring you to Olympus and let the gods see who they're to be afraid of. You'll escape and then retreat to the Underworld where you'll kill Persephone. I'll still be at Olympus when it happens so they won't have any reason to doubt me. Then you'll go through the Labyrinth to Daedalus's workshop and you'll get the Fence of Night. After that you'll go to the forge of Hephaestus and steal his chains."

"Wait a second. Fence of Night and chains?"

"The Fence of Night is one of Daedalus's most ingenious inventions. It's able to restrict a god from entering its location. The Chains of Hephaestus are able to bind a god and render their powers useless. Combined, I can use them to keep any other god from coming to the Underworld, a place of which they have only have limited access as is. The land of the dead will become a safe haven for both you and me."

"But how will you get back here if you leave?"

"I'll modify it. Give it a sort of whitelist. Shouldn't be too difficult. I am a god."

"How did you think of this plan so quickly?"

"I've had millennia to plan an overthrow of Olympus. When an opportunity arises I'm quick to seize it."

"Okay. So until the council meeting?"

"Until then," he said and extended his arm forward. "We train." A jet black pole appeared in his hands that had two sharp prongs on the top.

"Nice bident," I said.

"It's made of Stygian Iron. Forged by Hephaesuts toward the end of the Titan War."

I stood and held out my hand and Krinos appeared. "I don't know much about it. It's lines turn red after I kill something and I can dismiss it into a tattoo on my back."

Hades's bident disappeared and he examined my weapon. "Very interesting," he said. He extended his hand to me and I passed the weapon over to him. "This is a very powerful weapon. I cannot identify the metal it's made from nor the source of its powers. Where did you get this?"

"I can't say."

"It holds a very interesting ability. You said the lines turn red when you kill something? I believe what it's doing is absorbing power from whatever it is you killed and imbuing itself into you. Not too much power, just a portion. That's why you're not immortal from killing Atropos. You can just see the future, or a potential future at the very least."

"I — " I started to say but stopped because I spotted a glimmer in the corner of the room. "I've seen this before."

"Yes? I guess that's said power at work."

"What else can you tell me about Krinos? How can it kill a god?"

"It can't. In the hands of anyone else this is unable to end a god's life. The power to kill us lies within you."

"What?"

"When Prometheus first created humans there was originally one gender. Each person had four arms and four legs, as well as no genitalia. They were very powerful. So much so that they scared Zeus. He separated them into male and female, and then they were just as weak as they are now. When the gods began to take more comprehensible forms, we shaped ourselves after the mortals. We began to think like mortals and then admire them. We lay with them and birthed demigods. The demigods were more powerful than us. They possessed both the power of the original humans and the power of gods. That's a terrifying combination. So Zeus called upon every deity he allied with and with their combined powers, they created a new ancient law. Demigods became much weaker than gods, yet still more powerful than mortals. From that point forward demigods had only a portion of their godly parent's power and none of the original mortals'. And most importantly, they had the ability to die and did not have the power to kill us. Somehow you broke that ancient law."

"So even if I used a regular celestial bronze weapon I could still kill a god?"

"Correct."

"Where does a god go when they die?"

"I don't know. As far as I'm aware they fade. I have no control over Tartarus, but anything that goes there passes through the Underworld first. Atropos never passed through here."

"And we're sure that she's actually dead?"

"Yes."

"Alright. So what else can you tell me about Krinos?"

"Whatever the metal is, it's deadlier than celestial bronze. And it's almost active, as if it were alive. It seems to have some sort of bond with you. Almost like it's a part of you."

"Anything else?"

"The weapon isn't Greek. That's all I can tell about it. If that's all, let's see how you can handle that thing."

I stepped backwards and readied my trident. Hades raised his arm and his bident appeared aimed straight at me. He swung at me but I blocked it with Krinos. I tried to counterattack but he'd already swung at me again. I blocked his second strike and had to immediately move to block a third, then a fourth, fifth, sixth, until finally he relented his attacks. I took the opportunity to strike at him but he spun under the swing and knocked me to the ground with his bident and then leveled its two prongs at my throat.

"You're better than I expected," Hades said. "But not good enough."

* * *

"That gauntlet of yours," said Hades. "You don't use it enough."

It was a week and a half after my arriving in the Underworld. I spent twenty-four/seven in my cell. Every night Hades would pop in and start training with me. I was getting better. He taught me how to be faster and advanced combat tactics. I still haven't been able to beat him, but I could almost keep up.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"That's made of silver. Its strong and capable of withstanding attacks from celestial bronze weapons. If you use that defensively you're more likely to be able to land a hit with your trident."

"I — " I started to say.

"Wait," Hades said. His bident disappeared and he walked toward me. "Let me see that ."

I took it off and handed it to him. He examined it. "I can't believe I didn't notice it before," he said. "This isn't silver. Well, it is, technically. But this material wasn't mined from the earth. This was crafted by Hephaestus from the pelt of the silver unicorn."

"Uh, Care to elaborate?"

"Right. You wouldn't know of this. Most events post Greek era weren't documented by mortals. You know that the gods have moved around the world over the past two millennia. Once Olympus floated above Greece, then Rome, Germany, etc. At one point we resided in France. During the gods' French era Hecate and Artemis had an affair."

"I thought Artemis was a virgin goddess," I said.

"She is. She's never engaged in sexual acts with any man, woman, or even herself. The affair with Hecate was a complex one. The two managed to somehow fall in love with each other. When their lips met the moon fell from the sky. Seeing as the moon was her domain she grew enraged and placed guilt on Hecate. Their love for each other died in that moment.

"When Hecate left the scene Artemis wept at the fallen moon until her brother, Apollo, appeared and helped her put it back. But a piece of the moon remained on the ground. Hecate later found the piece and burned it with her two torches, but to her surprise a brilliant silver unicorn emerged from the flames. It's fur was made of pure silver. Hecate barely had a chance to admire the creature she helped create before an arrow tip erupted from the poor animal's throat. Hecate held its head in her arms as ichor poured from the wound and its life seeped away."

"Why did Artemis kill it?" I asked. "Wasn't it technically her son/daughter?"

"It wasn't Artemis that fell the beast. It was Apollo. He was still angry at Hecate for what she'd done to her sister and took revenge."

"Wait, you said it bled ichor. Wouldn't that mean it was a god? I thought gods couldn't kill gods."

"No, it wasn't a god yet. Newborn gods are as vulnerable as mortals for three hours after their births. Although they have ichor in their veins, it takes time for power to imbue itself into them."

"Oh. So what happened after it died?"

"Artemis skinned it and kept the pelt and horn as trophies that she didn't earn. And she also took its meat for eating then buried what was left. Eventually Hephaestus learned of the pelt and horn and stole them from her. He forged the pelt into a pair of boots then made a gauntlet with what was left. He then sharpened the horn and used it as a spear tip which he then gave to his brother, Ares, to repay a debt. He offered the boots and gauntlet to Hecate but she refused them, so he gave them to a demigod as a reward for a quest. Then the demigod died and the gauntlet and boots were stored away at Camp Half-Blood, forgotten."

"So are the boots still at Camp Half-Blood too?"

"Probably."

"But what's so special about them, though? The unicorn's fur was made of ordinary silver, so isn't the gauntlet just an ordinary silver gauntlet?"

"You're forgetting that one of its parents was Hecate. That fur contains immense magical properties. With this gauntlet you could learn magic. Of course, you could very likely get the same magic from killing Hecate with Krinos, but that's a ways off."

"So can you teach me?"

"I could. But I could only teach you magic that I know. I haven't taught you any of my powers up to this point because I did not believe it possible for you to learn them. Only a demigod child of mine could learn what I know. But that gauntlet changes things."

"So what can you teach me?"

"Necromancy, a few tricks of the earth, and fire."

"Fire isn't in your domain."

"That doesn't mean I can't control it, to an extent."

"Well let's start with that then. Fire sounds pretty useful."

"It's all in willpower. Learning magic will be long and tedious."

"It can't possibly be more boring than sitting alone in a cell with nothing to do."

"Very true."

* * *

It was the morning of the Olympian council meeting. Any minute now Hades will be 'delivering' me to Zeus. I held my armored hand in front of me palm up and stared at it intently. I concentrated, feeling the magic run through the gauntlet. I focused it to a single point and then felt the metal begin to heat up. A flame erupted from my palm and floated inches above in a small ball. I made an attempt to increase its size and it worked. Then I cut the magic from the flame and it died instantly.

"Yes!" I said out loud. "Hell yes!" That was the first time I'd been able to do that. Hades had showed me time and time again and taught me everything that went into it, but that was the only time I'd been successful.

I held out my palm and a ball of flames appeared instantly. I made it go away, then come back. I made it shrink to the size of a ping pong ball and threw it. It hit the black brick wall and fizzled out with no real damage being done.

"Nicely done," a voice said.

I looked up and Hades was at my cell door. In his hands was a key and a pair of deep orange handcuffs. He slipped the key into the lock and the door opened. He stepped inside and tossed the cuffs to me.

"Wear them," the god said. "They're completely useless. You'll be able to break out of them no problem. But they look identical to the ones gods normally use to bind demigods."

"Great. So is it time?"

"Yes. Put the chains on. Then I'll take us to Olympus."

I took off my gauntlet and placed it on the floor of my cell then locked the cuffs around my wrists behind my back. I stood and walked toward him. He put his hand on my shoulder and in a flash of light we were somewhere else.

We were in some sort of lobby in front of an elevator. There was a guard standing next to it looking bored and reading a magazine.

"We need to get to the six hundredth floor," Hades said to the guard.

"There are only a hundred and two floors," he said without looking up.

"Do I look like a mortal to you?" Hades asked.

The guard looked up and his eyes flashed in recognition. "Lord Hades," he said. "I didn't recognize you. But I still cannot allow you up. You're not welcome on Olympus."

"Of course I'm not. But I have something Zeus wants and I cannot give it to him from down here."

"Well it's not like I have a way to stop you," he said at the same instant the elevator doors opened.

Hades shoved me through and stepped in after me. Once the doors closed and the floor started to push up on us Hades turned to me and spoke hastily.

"This is our last chance to talk before you spill more ichor. I've made an adjustment to the plan. Once Persephone is dead you will find Daedalus in the cell next to yours."

"Daedalus is still alive?" I said.

"Yes. He is on our side. You will free him from his cell and he will guide you through the labyrinth to the Fence of Night. He will also aid you in getting to Hephaestus's forge. Also, while you are there, you cannot kill Hephaestus."

"What? Why?"

"He — "

Ding!

The elevator doors opened and I saw the most beautiful city I'd ever seen. There were temples and houses everywhere littered with all kinds of different trees and plants. There were people bustling through the streets as well. 'People' may be incorrect as they're all most likely minor gods.

Hades stepped out of the elevator and I followed him. We walked down an ornate brick road toward a castle in the distance on top of a very short mountain. The palace looked very similar to Hades's, just white instead of black.

In just a couple of minutes we arrived at its front doors and Hades pushed them open without even knocking. Behind the doors was a massive room. There were twelve thrones in a 'U' shape occupied by the Olympians. The thrones and gods were three times larger than a normal human.

All of the gods were silent and all their eyes were on us. The god in the middlemost throne was obviously Zeus.

"Brother," said the king of the gods. "What is the meaning of this intrusion?"

"I have captured the son of Poseidon and murderer of Atropos."

Several Olympians gasped and they began whispering among one another. One of them had black hair and wore khaki shorts, sandals, and a floral-themed silk shirt. He also held a golden trident in his right hand and was completely silent whilst staring straight at me. I could see no emotion in his sea-green eyes.

I remembered one of the visions I saw from the orb. A small cruise ship sailed across the Pacific Ocean. It was filled with every student in a middle school and its teachers. They were on a field trip to Europe when a colossal-sized trident erupted from the sea and shattered the boat to pieces. There were no survivors.

"Silence," Zeus called out. "Come here boy."

I took ten steps forward and Zeus raised his hand, cuing me to stop.

"Kneel," said the god of the skies.

"No," I said audibly.

The room was silent. Zeus's expression turned deadly.

"No?" he said.

I said nothing.

"Brother, make the brat kneel," Zeus said.

I heard footsteps and then two metal prongs pressed against my back. I stood my ground until Hades pressed harder and I dropped to one knee and the prongs relented.

"You murdered a goddess," Zeus said. "Who gave you the power to do so?"

"Gave?" I said. "No one gave me anything. I'm just extremely talented."

"A likely story," said Zeus.

"He's not going to give us any real answers," I heard a female voice say.

I looked to the side and saw a woman in full armor who looked very similar to Annabeth. She was Athena.

"There's no point asking," she continued. "I see resolve in his eyes that so few humans posses. We may as well just kill him now."

"Is that so?" Zeus said.

"You're a tyrant," I said out loud.

"What?" Zeus said with a venomous tone.

"You're a horrible king and more worthless than every mortal on Earth combined. All of you are. And I can't wait to repeat what I did to Atropos to each and every one of you." My eyes were locked with my father's as I said the last couple of words. Even with all twelve of the most powerful gods staring at me, I felt no danger. Knowing I was the only one capable of killing them gave me confidence.

I started to smell ozone in the air. My vision rippled and I saw a premonition of the future. After it ended I immediately summoned Krinos with my hands positioned perfectly to break my cuffs and planted the weapon in front of me with both my hands wrapped around the pole just as a deafening bang was heard and a lightning bolt shot from Zeus straight toward me.

When the light died out and everyone regained their sight they saw something they didn't expect. I was standing there holding Krinos, unharmed. Krinos's prongs glowed red where the lightning bolt struck and it's vein-like lines were bright yellow instead of the normal blue.

I acted on instinct and pointed Krinos at Zeus and just willed something to happen. A bolt of lightning flew at the god.

I used that as a distraction and stabbed Krinos into the ground and muttered, "Vistïko." Krinos's lines turned black and I began to fall.

* * *

When my feet touched the ground I was standing in the middle of Hades's throne room. It was empty. I used my knowledge of the Underworld that I'd obtained from the fury I'd impaled to guide my way through the castle.

I traveled down a set of stairs to the dungeons and found the cell I'd occupied for the past couple of weeks. It was unlocked and I stepped through. There on the ground was my gauntlet. I leaned down and picked it up then slid it onto my left hand where it belonged.

I stepped out of my cell and remembered what Hades said to me on the elevator to Olympus. I looked in the cell next to mine and on the floor were two sleeping figures. One, a giant hellhound and the other a man who appeared to be in his thirties.

Must be Daedalus, I thought. Hades had told me to find him after Persephone was dead, so I let him be and left.

I ascended the staircase and found my way to a room that had vines decorated with flower bulbs sprouting from the cracks of the door. I grabbed the handle and opened it and was immediately attacked by vines.

They wrapped around me and encased me, making me unable to move, although my face was left uncovered. I saw in the room the queen of the Underworld herself completely naked with vines rapidly growing up her body, forming clothes.

When she was concealed she stared at me with a look of anger and confusion.

"You're the demigod my husband captured," she said.

"I'm the demigod who's here to kill you," I responded.

"You're doing a fine job of it," she remarked.

Under the vines I'd managed to turn my left hand palm out. I willed a flame to spark and the vines started burning. When it'd spread enough I split my flowery cocoon off of myself with my body strength and summoned Krinos.

Persephone attempted to recapture me but each time vines started to wrap themselves around me I sent another fireball at them. I held Krinos in my hand and drew it back before launching it at the goddess.

In an attempt at defense she grew a wall of vines but Krinos ripped through it and I heard a scream of agony. I walked forward and used my gauntlet to burn through the remainder of the wall and retrieved Krinos from her chest. Ichor poured from the three holes in her torso as her skin turned ashy gray and she quickly corroded into nothing. Krinos's lines turned red and then faded back to blue.

I recalled some of the visions I'd seen of her in the orb and a sense of satisfaction grew in me as I turned and left the room.

"Time to meet Daedalus," I said aloud


	3. Fence of Night

"There's an entrance to the labyrinth in the Underworld?" I said.

"Correct," Daedalus replied.

"How did that happen?" I asked.

"The maze has a mind of its own. It goes where it wants," he answered. The man looked to be around forty, but in reality he was far older than that.

We continued to walk through the Underworld in silence. The hellhound he kept as a companion was a fearsome sight. He called her Mrs. O'leary. She was larger than a tank and trailed behind us, seeming anxious. Daedalus said she was normally hyper and friendly, but she wasn't that big a fan of the Underworld, ironically enough.

After a brief spell we arrived at a flat stone wall. Daedalus walked up to it and kicked a stone out of the way revealing a glowing blue triangle; it was a delta. The inventor pushed his thumb against it and a panel in the wall started moving backwards then split into two. After several seconds a large opening revealed a long, dark hallway that slanted slightly upward. A little bit further down the hallway I could see light. You could just barely make out sconces on the wall alight with flames.

"Time and space are different in here," Daedalus said after we stepped through the entrance. "You could walk for thirty seconds and come out miles away from where you started a year later. Most who come in here are unable to find their way out."

"But you know how to navigate it," I said.

"No. I don't."

"Wha — ?" I started to say.

"I know how to control it."

"Oh."

We continued to walk. Behind us Mrs. O'leary was more alert. It appeared that she disliked the labyrinth even more.

"So we're going to my workshop first?" Daedalus asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "Hades said that I can't kill Hephaestus yet, so the Fence might come in useful when I go in to steal his chains."

"That's if you can figure out how to work it."

"Is it complicated?"

"The Fence is the only time I ever tampered with magic. It worked out. Need I say more?"

"A little instruction would be nice."

"You ever played with magic, boy?"

"I'm learning."

"Then you know using the fence is going to take a lot more than just a couple of instructions."

"So why don't you come into the forge with me and set up the Fence while I take the chains?"

"I can come in with you, but I can't use the Fence."

"Why not?"

He paused. "I don't remember how," he lied lamely.

"You expect me to believe that?" I said.

He gave me a sideways look I couldn't identify. "I was honest about not being able to use the Fence, at the very least," he said.

Our conversation ended. After a couple minutes the sconces stopped being lit. There was nothing but darkness ahead of us. I summoned a flame to light the way, igniting any sconces as we walked past. Daedalus looked at the flame for a second but didn't comment.

After a while I decided to ask the question that had been sitting on my tongue. "What's your quarry with the gods?"

He didn't answer for a moment, probably contemplating whether or not he wanted to tell me the truth. Finally, he said, "when you live as long as I do, you find it hard not to question those who hold all the power. My mother and the other Olympians declared me their enemy long before I became one." A few seconds after he finished, he asked, "What's yours?"

"The gods are liars," I answered. "And villains."

"Tyrants," the inventor offered.

"Exactly."

We walked for what felt like another thirty minutes. We took several turns, even turned around a couple times to find a new path behind us. Daedalus stopped me abruptly several times and disarmed a trap.

"How much further?" I asked at last.

"I don't know," he replied. "All I know is we're going the right way."

After another minute or so I remembered something.

"When I first met Hades," I said, "he told me Zeus's Master Bolt had been stolen. He also later told me his Helm of Darkness was stolen as well. But when I went to Olympus, Zeus had his Master Bolt. Do you know how he got it back?"

"I don't spend much time on the surface, boy. Everything you just said is news to me."

After what felt like hours we turned a corner and Daedalus put his arm in front of my chest cuing me to stop. There was a pit ten feet across blocking our path to a dead end. I looked closely at the wall across the chasm and I saw a tiny blue delta several inches above the floor.

"Is that it?" I asked.

"Yes," Daedalus said.

"How do we get across?"

He didn't answer. Instead he whistled and Mrs. O'leary came trotting up directly beside him. I noticed her tail was wagging and she seemed excited. She could tell that we were about to leave. Daedalus undid her collar and took a circle that was hidden in it before putting the collar back on her. The inventor knelt down and and his hand dipped over the edge. Before I knew it his hand bolted back up without the circle just as a stone bridge shot from beneath us leading to the other side.

We walked across and Daedalus pushed the delta on the wall and a door opened. Mrs. O'leary shot passed us and through the door and we followed her.

Inside I was met with a very surprising sight. The workshop resembled a modern penthouse with thirty-foot ceilings and massive windows, from which daylight shone through. All over were tables, racks, shelves, and art easels covered with different inventions, blueprints, and designs. There were also a handful of laptops scattered around the workshop in various locations. Near one of the windows a spiral staircase rose up to a second floor.

In the corner I spotted Mrs. O'leary lying in a ball on a large dog bed designed specifically for her. She looked adorable now that she was happy, which is strange way to describe a hellhound.

Daedalus walked to the wall on the left while I walked to a window. There was nothing but clouds to see, whether I looked down or up.

"Where are we?" I asked.

He glanced at the window for a fraction of a second.

"In a mountain," he answered. "Probably Everest. Possibly Nanga Parbat or Kilimanjaro."

"You don't know?"

"The workshop moves around frequently. It's unpredictable."

I walked toward his side of the room. He was standing next to a table. He pressed a specific point on the wall and the top popped open revealing a secret compartment. Inside were several items, most of which were identical to the circle he used to summon the bridge. The item he grabbed however was a black handle. It wasn't attached to anything.

"Grab one of the disks," Daedalus said. "And keep it safe."

I did as he instructed and slid one disk into my pocket.

Daedalus closed the table and examined the blank stretch of wall to the right of it. He held the handle a few inches away from it as he moved it around until it snapped to the wall like a magnet. He held onto the handle and tried pulling it to the left but it didn't budge. He pulled harder and a section of the wall a little over a foot wide slid aside and revealed a five foot tall metal pole about four inches in diameter. It was radiating a purple aura.

"There's your Fence," he said. He reached behind it and pressed a button of some sort and the aura disappeared. He then knelt down and tried to detach the pole from the ground. "Can you fetch me my multi tool?" he asked me. "It should be on one of my workbenches beneath the windows."

"Sure," I said. I walked to the windows and started looking for the multi tool. As I searched I saw all kinds of blueprints for inventions that looked straight out of a sci-fi movie. I couldn't understand what any of them were supposed to do.

Finally I found a blue multi tool that looked identical to the ones mortals used. I grabbed it and returned to Daedalus and handed it to him. He took the tool and began to fiddle with the base of the Fence.

"So how does this work?" I asked.

He glanced at me over his shoulder for a fraction of a second. "The secret is in the material used. Demigods venture into the labyrinth every now and then. Most of them end up dead. One time I found a skeleton of a kid shorter than you. Had on a pair of boots. I recognized them to be the ones Hephaestus forged from the pelt of the silver unicorn."

"That's what my gauntlet is made from," I said.

"Ah," he said. "That explains how a son of Poseidon can summon a ball of flame. Anyway, I took the boots and melted them down and forged a hollow pole. With a bit of tinkering and a lot of trial and error, I made the Fence of Night."

"So you combined magic with technology?"

"Precisely," he answered. "A very powerful combination if executed correctly."

"Does Hephaestus do that a lot?" I questioned.

"Most likely not. He's a god. He doesn't need to. He could easily replicate the properties of the Fence without magic. He has, in a way: the chains."

"Right."

"Got it," he said and stood with the Fence in hand. He turned to face me and I noticed intricate mechanisms hanging from the base of the pole. He took it over to a workbench and laid it down and flipped a full sized diamond saw from the tiny multi tool somehow and cut off the bottom few inches. Then he flipped the saw back into the multi tool and then extended a flat-head screwdriver. He used the screwdriver to detach the mechanism from the piece he cut off then tossed me the empty hoop.

"There should be a crucible upstairs," he said. "Light a fire underneath it and toss that metal in."

I walked up the spiral staircase to the second story. There were a lot more inventions here that I couldn't make sense of, but there were also weapon racks full of different kinds of weapons. Most were made from celestial bronze but there were a few odd materials here and there.

At the end of the loft there was an anvil and right next to it was a circle of stone filled with coals and a small stone crucible hanging over it. I walked over to it and conjured a flame then dropped it onto the coals. Then I dropped the ring of silver into the crucible and watched as it melted.

A couple minutes later Daedalus came up with the Fence of Night and walked towards me. At the bottom of the Fence was a disk of celestial bronze welded to it, covering the hole and inner workings.

"What was the part you removed?" I asked.

"That was just what kept it locked to the ground. I took extra precautions. Didn't want it moving for fear of interrupting its function."

"And we won't need it when we set it up in the Underworld?"

"No. There are more important things I can use that bit of metal for."

"Like what?"

"Fusing the Fence to Hephaestus's chains, for one. And I might be able create some interesting circuits with what's left. Silver's highly conductive. Combine that with the magical property and I can put that to great use. Maybe design a new CPU for one of my laptops and give it far better processing power. Or even create a new chip for — " He stopped himself in his sudden excitement and glanced at me.

"Yourself?" I offered.

"What?" he said.

I pointed at a blackboard behind him. It showed sketches of several parts of the body, only there weren't bones or muscles inside of them; there were gears. It detailed how a person could transfer their "animus" into an artificial body. I had time to read it while I waited for the metal to melt.

He turned and looked at it.

"That's how you lived so long, right?" I said. "You created a new body for yourself."

Daedalus cursed himself under his breath. "Yes," he admitted.

"Why did you feel the need to hide that?" I asked. "That's pretty awesome."

"Mortals are supposed to die," he said. "Demigods are supposed to die. There's not supposed to be a way around it. I shouldn't have lived this long. No one should. That's why I try and keep that secret."

"I get that. But it's not like I'd want to live forever. I only intend on living as long as I need to."

"How should I know how long you want to live? You're a stranger to me. And it's going to take more than a lifetime to achieve your end game."

"I don't buy that. I've already killed two."

"There are a lot more of them than you think."

"A lot of them have already faded though. It's basically just our camp that worships them anymore, right? There were over three hundred of them at one point. There can't possibly still be that many now."

"Only Hades can answer that."

"Well we'll ask when we get back to the Underworld then," I said.

"I'm not going back to the Underworld."

"You're not?"

"My biggest enemy is Minos. He's a judge of the dead. I won't be safe living down there."

"But where will you go then? Where will you be safe from the gods now that the Fence of Night is absent from your workshop?"

"I'll use the spare metal to create a chip that should conceal my location from them. There should be enough to do at least that, hopefully. But even if that works I won't be able to stay in one place too long."

"So this is the only way you're contributing in the downfall of the gods?"

"It's the only way I can. I'll help if possible in the future."

"But how will we know where to find you? It should be impossible if your chip works."

"We'll figure that out. One step at a time. Let's just get the Fence ready to be fused with the chains for now."

I paused. "Alright."

* * *

Before we left the workshop Daedalus gave me free roam to take anything I wanted as he wouldn't be able to return to it in the future. The only thing I could see having a use was a watch that transformed into a celestial bronze shield. It was a plate with a diameter as large as my forearm and it looked like it could have had an image on it at one point but was too heavily scratched and worn to mean anything. It wouldn't be much use in melee combat as my gauntlet was just as strong and more flexible, but the wider area would be effective against ranged attacks. I'll need that extra bit of defense when I take on Artemis and Apollo.

It took what felt like an hour or two to reach Hephaestus's forge. The door to it was pretty simple. It was a large round circle made of what looked like steel with a large black delta indented in the center. It had a line in the center splitting the door in half, so the two haves would apparently separate to open. When we stepped closer to it it opened automatically. The doors slid apart and disappeared into the walls to reveal a tunnel made of metal plates bolted over every inch of the walls, floor, and ceiling. So many overlapped each other that the surfaces were as bumpy as a cave tunnel.

"There's bound to be traps in here, right?" I asked.

"We'll have to be cautious," Daedalus agreed.

We entered the tunnel. As we walked I noticed the inventor's eyes darting around. After four seconds of walking he stopped and held out his arm, signaling me to do the same. He reached into his pocket and took out a black device that looked like a large hockey puck. He placed it on the ground and three legs popped out with silver disks on the ends that snapped to the floor magnetically and it started to hum. He twisted the top off and examined the screen on the inside of it.

"Is that thing fool proof?" I asked nervously.

He glanced at me. "It detects electricity, metals, plastics, steam, and rubber down to a subatomic level and runs a series of complex algorithms to detect whether or not mechanisms are present and tries to predict what they do and where they are. I've adapted it by giving it the ability to learn and tested it against thousands of traps of my own design and other people's. I've tested it against four traps made by the forge god as well. It failed the first two times and succeeded the third and fourth. It isn't optimal, but it's the best chance we have without disassembling the entire tunnel."

"Is that not an option?" I asked stupidly.

"We want to spend as little time in here as possible so as to avoid getting caught by the forge god. And there are very likely to be more traps destined for those who attempt to remove the plates. And we don't even know whether or not the walls are what hold the tunnel together. The last thing we need is the ceiling caving in on us."

"Alright," I said before he could add another dozen reasons as to why my question was idiotic. "I get it."

Daedalus continued examining the screen on the lid of the trap detector for about half a minute before he seemed to have made up his mind. "Follow my lead," he said.

He took three steps forward and stopped. He reached into his pocket and took out a small metal ball and tossed it a few feet in front of him. It caused a tiny explosion on impact and a silver net dropped from the ceiling covering five feet of floor, the edge only going as far as three inches away from Daedalus's feet.

The inventor examined the monitor again and cursed.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"The next traps involve homing bullets, deadly gas, and explosives," he answered.

"So what do we do?"

"We're going to have to shadow travel."

"What's that?"

"Mrs. O'leary has the ability to melt into shadows and appear somewhere else because she's a creature of the Underworld."

"Why haven't we been doing that this whole time?"

"Because it's very tiring magic and she can't do it too frequently. I'd been hoping to save that for an escape route. We might still be able to do it after. I just didn't want to push her too hard."

Daedalus pushed a button on the lid of the trap detector and the bottom half of it came speeding back to rejoin the screen. Then he returned the device to his pocket and whistled.

Mrs. O'leary trotted up right next to us with the Fence of Night still strapped to her back. He stroked her side and whispered into her ear and pointed down at the end of the hall. Then he slipped his fingers underneath one of the leather straps that wrapped around her body and held tight, gesturing for me to copy him.

After we both had a tight grip on the straps, we began to fall. We fell extremely fast; so fast that it felt like we weren't falling, more like being pushed or pulled down. My vision was obscured; I could see nothing but black. It was difficult to keep my grip on Mrs. O'leary but after a few seconds of the exhilarating speed at which we fell, we stopped in an instant. I let my grip on the strap loosen and I fell to my hands and knees feeling dizzy.

I used my hands to push myself to my feet, blinking several times to get used to the sudden change in light. Daedalus was already on his feet and Mrs. O'leary was panting in a sitting position.

In front of us there was a large celestial bronze door identical to the one we entered the tunnel through.

"How long do you think we've been down here?" I asked. "Would Hephaestus still be at the Olympian council meeting?"

"It's impossible to tell," the inventor answered. He was eyeing the door suspiciously.

"You think we can just knock?" I suggested jokingly.

"As long as you're willing to risk triggering a trap."

"You inventors and your traps," I mumbled.

Daedalus took out the trap detector and placed it on the ground. Again, its three legs popped out and stuck to the floor, and again, he twisted the top and it popped off. He examined it for a bit then pushed the button and returned the joined halves to his pocket.

"Any traps?" I questioned.

"Doesn't appear so," he answered.

"There are no handles," I pointed out. "How do we open it?

"Good question. It appears to have a complex lock. Perhaps it's designed to detect the presence of the god. Try to pry it open."

I summoned Krinos and carefully slid the point of the longest prong in the crack between the doors. Once I was sure it was at least somewhat in there I tried pulling on the trident like a lever to get it open. It didn't budge.

"Try putting a hole in it," the inventor suggested.

I did as he instructed and stabbed Krinos into the door. The hardness of the metal that made up the door nullified most of the momentum, but it appeared that the middle prong was just sharp enough to put a small hole in the door. The other two prongs weren't long enough to even touch it.

"Fascinating," Daedalus said. "Whatever that trident is made of, it's stronger than celestial bronze."

I dismissed Krinos and stepped back allowing the inventor to take over. He reached into his pocket and took out another tiny metallic sphere, just small enough to fit in the hole I created. He dropped it in and stepped back. Two seconds passed and the tunnel shook and the doors split open a couple inches. I summoned Krinos and tried to pry them open again, and this time I succeeded. I pulled hard and they split several more inches and then stopped resisting altogether. I dismissed Krinos and pulled on the doors with my hands and they slid all the way open easily.

The room behind the doors wasn't as spectacular as you'd expect from a god. There was a round forge in the center of the room with a bellows sticking out of the side and a long, rectangular basin to the side of it filled with presumably oil. Along the walls of the room were dozens of tables covered with numerous inventions and blueprints. There were shelves on the walls as well that stacked up to the ceiling filled with a variety of ingots, gears, wires, etc. To sum it up: it looked pretty much like Daedalus's workshop but more cramped, less organized, and much darker. There was also a lack of windows, giving the place an unpleasant vibe.

"No sign of the forge god," Daedalus pointed out.

"How are we supposed to find the chains in here?" I asked.

Daedalus examined the room for just a few seconds before pointing and saying, "they're right there."

I looked to where he was pointing and sure enough on the wall there was a hook dangling a chain with alternating red and bronze chains.

"Are there any traps between here and there?" I asked.

"No," he answered.

I began walking toward the chains and he and Mrs. O'leary followed. The hellhound seemed to have trouble traversing through the cramped room. I grabbed the chains and wrapped them around my arm then turned back towards the door.

"You've never failed to impress me, Daedalus," said the figure that now suddenly stood in the doorway. He was a very ugly man. He wore torn jeans with a toolbelt wrapped around his waist. One of his legs seemed shorter than the other and had a bronze brace on it. On his torso was an apron covering a plain brown shirt. His muscular arms were bare and his face was lopsided and mangled. He had shaggy brown shoulder-length hair that was chopped unevenly.

The sight of him brought a memory from the orb to my mind. It was of a fifty foot robot that leveled an entire ancient city full of innocent people in minutes.

"But I'm very disappointed in you," continued Hephaestus.

"I never sought your approval," replied the inventor. "Nor my mother's."

"Give me the Fence," I muttered to Daedalus.

"And the son of Poseidon," the god growled. "Here to steal my chains?"

"You can still leave, Hephaestus. I'm not killing you today," I said, remembering my brief conversation with Hades in the elevator.

"On that we agree."

I stepped forward so I was closer to the god than Daedalus and Mrs. O'leary. "So just step aside and let us leave as a little thank you for me not killing you yet."

The god chuckled.

I reached my left hand back and Daedalus planted the Fence of Night in my gauntleted palm.

"Shadow travel away," I said to him.

"Don't do that," said the god. "Cowering away from an old cripple, now are we, Daedalus?"

I summoned Krinos and launched it at the god. I aimed for his leg but it didn't matter. Before the trident reached him a thick wall of metal erupted from the ground, shielding him. Krinos put three dents in it but fell to the ground. I willed it to return to my back then summoned it again. The wall of metal began retracting into the ground. I glanced behind me and Daedalus and Mrs. O'leary were gone.

"VistÏko," I muttered as I shoved the trident's three prongs into the floor, but they never connected. A hole opened up and swallowed me and I began falling.

* * *

My power to travel to the Underworld appears to be getting more precise every time I use it. I still have to manually reduce my momentum but this time I was spit out only six feet off the ground and in the center of Hades's throne room: the exact place I wanted to end up.

It was empty, at first, but after several seconds a door opened and the god of the dead himself walked through it.

"You're finally back," he said, not unkindly.

"How long have I been gone?" I asked.

"Four days," he replied.

"It barely felt like a few hours," I said.

"That's the labyrinth for you. Did Daedalus live?"

"He escaped, but I don't know where to. We ran into Hephaestus at his forge, but he still lives per your instruction."

"The plan couldn't have gone better, then."

"Why couldn't I kill him?"

"We'll have plenty of time to converse after we install the Fence."

"Fine. But after the Fence is up I need to know where I'm sleeping because I'm very tired right now and I'm not returning to that cell.


	4. Hellhound

When I awoke I left the bedroom Hades had given me the night before and traversed to the throne room to find a bit of rearranging had occurred. The first notable change was that a long table now sat in the center of the room with five chairs on either side of it and one chair on the end closest to the main door. Opposite of that chair was Hades's throne (currently occupied by the god himself), but now it was shrunk down to fit a normal sized person. Persephone's throne was absent.

I walked to the end of the table and sat in the chair opposite of the Lord of the Dead.

"So, Uncle," I said, breaking the silence. "It's time for us to get on even grounds."

"How so?" asked the god.

"First off, I need to make something clear. We are allies and equals. I am not your subordinate. I will not take orders from you, nor will you take orders from me. We are going to make decisions together as a team."

"I can agree to that," he said after thinking on my words for a moment.

"Good. Second thing I want to mention: I am a guest in your keep. In your realm. You've been training me. So, thank you."

"You're welcome. And you've performed an errand for me that kept my realm safe from our enemies, as well as freed me from my marriage and alliance to Olympus. For those things I am grateful to you."

"Cool. So that's out of the way. Now we can get to work. I have some questions for you, first off."

"Be my guest."

"Why couldn't I kill Hephaestus?"

"There are a few reasons. The first one: you likely wouldn't have been able to, and it could have proven fatal to attempt it. You were on his home turf. You were literally surrounded by hundreds of machines meant to kill you should he have given the command."

"Fair point," I admitted.

"The second reason," he continued, "is precaution. We do not know what kind of weapons of mass destruction the god has and how they are activated. Until we can capture him and get that information from him, he needs to live.

"And for the third reason: strategy. We're fighting a war right now. Every action we take will have to be thought out beforehand. Hephaestus has a grudge against Hera. The more rivalries there are on Olympus, the less organized they'll be and the easier it will be to pick them off one by one. It'd be beneficial to have them fighting each other."

"That makes sense," I said. Satisfied with his answer, I moved on to my second question. "When I first came here, you accused me of stealing Zeus's master bolt. And when you pretended to hand me over to Olympus, he had his bolt and tried to use it against me. What's the story here?"

"Ahh," he said. "When it first went missing, Zeus accused both me and Poseidon for having taken it. But after having found out that my Helm of Darkness had been stolen as well, all suspicion was on your father."

"He's not my father," I blurted. After a pause I added, "not in any way that matters."

He eyed me for a fraction of a second before continuing. "Now a god can't steal another god's symbol of power, so everyone suspected that Poseidon used you to steal the bolt and my helm. But then a few weeks passed and Ares comes out and admits to having used a son of Nike to steal them in hopes to start a war — he does that sometimes. One thing you may not know about gods is that we fear death far more than mortals do. When Atropos fell, Ares started getting nervous and surrendered the demigod to Zeus, and the bolt and my helm were returned."

"Son of Nike?" I asked. "I don't remember any children of Nike when I was at camp."

"Ethan Nakamura."

The name sounded familiar. I racked my brain for a few seconds before finally remembering that he was one of the unclaimed in the Hermes cabin. He and I had never spoken a word to one another.

"Yeah, I remember him," I said. "But why would he help Ares start a pointless war?"

"Good question. I feel there's more to this than Ares has admitted to, but this is the extent of my knowledge."

My mind wandered on the subject for a moment before I continued to my next question. "One of the furies tried to kill me. Don't the furies follow you?"

The god sighed. "Yes, they do. Or at least they did. Before I'd learned of your true nature I'd believed that Poseidon had used you to steal my helm and Zeus's bolt, so I sent in Alecto to try and confirm my suspicions, but I never instructed her to kill you, I promise you that. That encounter proved to me that the Erinyes are unreliable and I have since dismissed them."

"Hmm," I pondered.

"You really must forgive me. At the time so little was known and it did make a lot of sense to think you the thief. Poseidon and Zeus have never been on the best of terms, no better than me and Zeus or me and Poseidon. I am quite surprised that after two millennia those two can still sit in the same council room as allies."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I said. I wasn't mad at him, not even for a second. I was actually kind of grateful. Were it not for that fury I wouldn't have gotten my trident when I did and met the entity when I did. Everything would have played out differently and I quite like how it played out.

"Anymore questions?" asked the god.

"One. Why so many chairs?" I asked gesturing to the sides of the table.

"You don't honestly believe you and I alone can win this war, do you?"

"But I'm the only one capable of killing gods, and our mission is to kill all the gods."

"Our mission is to win a war against the gods," he corrected. "Even if there is only one soldier, we need more minds to win."

"I guess we could use some extra help."

"I already have a couple demigods in mind, and I'm sure you do too."

I thought about it. I had two in mind: Annabeth and Luke. But I remembered something the entity had said to me. 'Eventually one will join you and the other will be your enemy.' I need to find out which.

I thought about Grover, as well, but he'd been hung up on finding Pan his whole life. How could I just simply turn him against his god? How could I take his greatest ambition from him? His life's goal? No. Grover is best left out of this.

"I have a couple," I said. I couldn't be entirely honest with him. How could I explain that I knew one of my friends was going to betray me without telling him of the entity? 'No animal, person, or deity is to know of me,' he had said.

"Good," Hades said.

"Well now that we're done with questions — " I started to say.

"Hold on a second," he interrupted. "I have questions for you as well."

"You do?" I said, surprised.

"Of course I do. You're the most interesting thing to appear on Earth since Heracles."

Of course. He's going to ask the exact questions that I can't answer. "Fine," I said.

"How did you obtain your abilities?" he asked.

"I don't know," I lied.

His expression tightened. He knew I was lying.

"Where did you get your trident?" he questioned.

"It was a gift," I answered.

"From whom?"

"I can't say."

"How did you know the true nature of the gods?"

"I can't say."

"What is it that made you trust me, of all the gods?"

"You've never done anything to intentionally harm an innocent mortal, mentally or physically. You're not evil."

"How could you know that?"

"I can't say."

"You can't say."

We stared at each other for several seconds.

"Alright, look," I said. "I know how this must seem. You've given me every answer I've asked, yet I don't answer any of your questions, which are quite important. I would tell you everything if I could, but these are not my secrets to tell."

"I see," he said.

"You have to trust me on this."

There were several seconds of silence. "Fine."

"I'm sorry."

"Let's move on."

"Alright. So time to start planning a war, then. I guess we should list how many gods there are first."

"Good idea," Hades said. A little black notebook with a pen appeared in front of me on the table. I picked it up. "Start by writing down the twelve Olympians. Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hephaestus, Ares, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Demeter, and Dionysus. We'll just list them for now and decide at which order they should be taken out later."

After I finished jotting down the twelve names I stared at the page and a realization came to me. I no longer have Dyslexia. Did that come with the power the entity gave me? And does that mean I no longer have ADHD either?

"And then there's Hestia," I said, writing the name down. "Continue."

"Hecate, Thanatos," the god listed.

"Wait. Thanatos?" I asked.

"The god of death," he supplied.

"I know. It's just, doesn't he live in the Underworld too? Is he a threat?"

"Any god in the Underworld when the Fence of Night is activated will be expelled to the surface, excluding me because I modified the Fence to exclude me from its effects."

"But if he's locked out of the Underworld, how is he doing his job? How will anyone be able to die now?"

"If Atropos is dead then who decides when anyone will die? If Persephone is dead then how will there be spring?"

"Are people dying?" I asked.

"Yes. Since Atropos died, the rate at which mortals die has not dropped at all."

"But has anyone died since the Fence was activated?" I asked.

He thought. "There have been deaths, but there have been an alarming rate of miraculous recoveries."

"Well that means when gods die, their domains are passed off into nature or something. If I kill Thanatos, then things should go back to normal." I stood.

"What are you doing?" Hades asked in an annoyed tone.

"I'm going to go kill Thanatos," I said.

"And how do you suppose you'll do that? Do you know where Thanatos is? Do you have the means to get there?

After a moment, I reluctantly sat back down.

"Thanatos needs to die," Hades agreed, "and soon. But first you need to learn to shadow travel."

"Shadow travel? And how do you suppose I'll do that? Take another week or so to learn?"

"Not quite," he said. He was looking at me strange.

It took me a second to realize he wasn't actually looking at me, he was looking behind me. I quickly stood and turned to be immediately tackled to the floor by a one ton black beast the size of a small car. I grabbed its throat with my armored hand to keep its teeth away from my face. The hellhound clawed at my chest with its two front paws and dug its long claws into my flesh.

"AGGH!" I yelled. I used my other hand to grab one of its front paws and using both my arms somehow managed to throw the beast from me. I rolled over to my knees at the cost of a blinding amount of pain.

It's not Mrs. O'leary, I said to myself.

It's not Mrs. O'leary, I said to myself again.

The beast started charging toward me again. Before it reached me I summoned Krinos and the hellhound impaled itself on the prongs with its own momentum. Its force shoved me to my back but I heard a deep whimper as it died and exploded into golden dust.

I heard footsteps coming toward me until a hand was on my chest and all pain suddenly subsided.

I got to my feet and saw Hades looking at me.

"What the hell was that? I could have died!" I said incredulously

"You took it down easily enough, as I knew you would," he said defensively. "And it wasn't even a full-sized hellhound."

"Was that your plan to teach me to shadow travel? By nearly having me killed? A warning at least would have been helpful."

"Well judging by the lines on your trident briefly turning red I'd say it worked. Also, it's to note that that hellhound weighed near two thousand pounds and you threw it over ten feet away from you. It seems that it is no longer a mystery as to what power you absorbed from killing the Minotaur."

I ran my hand across my shirt. The holes that the hellhound made were still there and so was the blood, but I felt no sign of the wound there.

"Now let's see if you actually managed to learn to shadow travel," Hades said. "Try to slip into the shadows and appear over there." He pointed to the other end of the room.

"Fine," I said, still mad. I racked my brain for the knowledge of how to shadow travel. Every time I'd gotten something from Krinos, the information instantly appeared in my mind as if it were always there. That's how I knew how to get to the Underworld and how to throw Zeus's lightning bolt back at him even though I'd never done those things before.

I took a deep breath and started walking forward. The instant I took my first step my sight was gone and I could see only darkness. I was zooming forward and felt air rushing past me at incredible speed but in an second I stumbled forward and felt slightly exhausted.

I turned around and spotted Hades standing right in front of where I had been less than a second ago. He turned and looked at me.

"That's incredible," he commented. "Pure mastery of a complicated magic in a matter of seconds."

"You know Thanatos better than anyone, right?" I asked. "Where would he be right now?"

"It's true that I'm closer to Thanatos than most, but that still doesn't mean much. But I do know that he was quite fond of the Aztecs when they were around. I suggest checking the Mesoamerican pyramids."

"Okay. How do I shadow travel there without ever having been there, though?" I asked.

Hades held out his hand and a flat white square appeared in his palm. He extended it toward me and I grabbed it. It was a polaroid picture of the iconic Aztec pyramid.

"You may want to run this time," Hades suggested. "Due to the greater distance, it'll be a little more draining."

After I'd studied the image enough I took off at a sprint and my vision went dark.


	5. Death

As soon as I landed I was hit with exhaustion greater than I'd ever felt before, as if I'd been awake for two days straight. My torso hit the ground before my feet did. I pushed myself into a standing position and examined my surroundings. The first thing I saw was a steep decline four inches from where I was standing. Below me I saw relatively flat land covered in grass and then a bit further back was a forest. It took me a moment but I realized the entire area was eerily empty; there wasn't a single tourist in sight.

I turned around toward the entrance to the pyramid. It was completely dark inside; no lights or anything. I contemplated my options. I could go inside the pyramid looking for the god of death through the dark and narrow hallways that he probably already knows by heart, or I could descend the pyramid and challenge him on an open field in broad daylight. There wasn't much to contemplate.

I cautiously descended the steps of the ancient pyramid. When I reached the last step I continued walking until I was out in the open. I looked around and the entire area was still unnaturally devoid of people.

"Thanatos," I called out, not too loudly. It didn't matter how loud I said it. He'd still hear.

I felt a shift behind me and I turned to see a winged man who could only be described as beautiful; not handsome, but beautiful. His wings glimmered in shades of black, blue, and purple. He had shoulder length black hair and golden eyes. His skin was the color of teakwood. As for his attire he had nothing but a torn black pelt for a skirt and a pair of leather sandals on his feet.

"You intrigue me, Perseus Jackson," said the god of death. "You've broken into my domain and shattered one of the most basic rules of my job. The ability to kill a god is unprecedented. I have to admit I'm quite jealous."

"Well you're about to get first hand experience," I said. I summoned Krinos and struck it at him but he disappeared.

I turned around but I still couldn't see him.

"Are you afraid of me?" I yelled.

"Why should I be?" I heard a whisper from behind me and felt a hand touch my shoulder.

I immediately thrust Krinos backwards and pushed him away from me with the blunt end of the trident. I turned and saw him lying on the ground before getting to his feet. I tried to strike at him but his wings flapped and he took flight and hovered just out of my reach.

He had a shocked expression on his face. "How do you live? A touch from Death kills mortals."

"I'm no mortal," I said. "But you'll soon know mortality better than any god."

I launched Krinos at him like a javelin but he disappeared again. I turned around and saw him hovering ten feet off the ground and twice as far away from me. A long crack split the ground in two and skeletal hands started appearing over the edge. Soon a small army of skeletal warriors were marching toward me, and they were fully armed.

A lot of them seemed to have long paddles with sharp rocks sticking out of the sides. Wait, no. Not rocks; obsidian. Some of them had quivers full of arrows on their backs and half of those had bows. The other half had short sticks in hand that didn't appear to be for blunt attacks.

I soon learned that the sticks were meant for launching the arrows, or darts would better describe them as they didn't have fletchings. They had the sticks held over their shoulders with one of the darts on top of it while the archers had multiple arrows notched on their bows.

I pressed a button on the watch Daedalus gave me and it transformed into a shield. I held it in front of me to hopefully block as many of the projectiles as possible.

Suddenly the skeletal army of Aztecs stopped, but kept their weapons at the ready.

"I'll give you a chance to surrender," Thanatos called out.

I'm really not liking my odds here. I started playing out scenarios in my head until an idea came to mind.

In my gauntleted hand I summoned a ball of fire and willed it to grow bigger. I held my hand out as far from my body as I could because I still wasn't immune to the flame's heat. The largest I could get the ball to be was about the size of my head. Without hesitation I chucked it toward where I saw the most amount of ranged warriors. As soon as it landed the fire erupted in a huge explosion engulfing a good amount of them and I could just barely see them crack and crumble to dust.

By then the melee skeletons were already advancing on me and the arrows and darts were flying through the air. My attack had barely made a dent.

They can't shoot me if I'm right next to them, I realized.

Before the projectiles could reach me I fell back into the shadows and appeared right in the middle of the army and immediately did a spin with Krinos to clear out a wide circle of the skeletons. Each skeleton my trident collided with broke and collapsed into a pile of bones near instantly. The skeletons took a few seconds to recover from their surprise, which was all I needed. I extended my left hand and shot out a stream of flames whilst I pivoted my body so I was burning the skeletons all around me. When they finally realized what was happening they started closing in on my circle, but I was igniting them before most of them could reach me. The ones that did get close enough to me I was able to take out by using Krinos with my other hand.

Before I knew it I was surrounded by a large pile of ash and bones. About half the army remained, but before I could get to them the ground broken open beneath them and swallowed them up, and the bones and ash around me also sunk into the ground.

Thanatos floated down to the ground and landed twenty feet away from where I was standing.

"Your power," he said in disbelief. "It exceeds my own. But I won't be dying today."

"Face me!" I shouted.

"No."

"Face me!" I repeated.

Thanatos began to glow and increase in size. He began to transform into something incomprehensible, indescribable. It was his true divine form. He was fleeing. I felt a tug in my gut and I instinctively pulled back on it with my willpower. In a flash he disappeared, but in another he was five feet in front of me.

"How?" he said. I could see the fear in his eyes now.

"Face me," I said one last time.

In his hand a tall scythe appeared, I assumed made of stygian iron.

I gave Krinos a twirl and advanced. Our weapons collided and our dance begun. He was much better than I'd have thought. Every time I struck he blocked it and was still fast enough to counter with his own strike, but I was able to block with my shield. But I wasn't at my peak performance. I was extremely tired from my multiple shadow travels, my constant use of fire magic, and just overall exhaustion from fighting an entire army of skeletal warriors. Plus, I wasn't used to fighting against someone wielding a scythe.

Before I knew it, I took a hit. Then another. And another. And I was on one knee. I had a minor cut on my left upper arm, and another on my cheek. I also took a deep gash to my lower right leg, which is what brought me to the ground.

"Perhaps I overestimated you," said the god of death as he attempted a finishing blow, but I dropped Krinos and caught the scythe's handle with both hands, my right hand closer to the blade which was several inches from stabbing my head. With my left hand I lit a flame which burned the wooden handle and severed the weapon in two. With my right hand holding the half with the blade, I stabbed his shoulder. The god gasped as he fell to his knees. I left the blade in him and picked up Krinos. I didn't hesitate and stabbed him straight through the chest. Ichor poured from the wounds as he began to wither away into nothing. Krinos's lines momentarily turned red but I hardly noticed it.

With my last ounce of effort I stabbed Krinos into the ground and muttered, "VistÏko."

I fell asleep as I fell.


	6. Lotus

I woke up in my bed feeling nauseous and a few of my limbs ached. I had a thin blanket draped over myself. I pushed it off and got to my feet. I stretched to try and get rid of the aching then walked over to an armoire at the opposite wall of my bed. Before I'd returned from the Labyrinth Hades had filled it with clothes tailored to my size, but not my taste.

I grabbed a t-shirt and pair of jeans and replaced my pajamas with them. Then I put on a pair of socks followed by a pair of boots. All of the clothes were either black or grey. I also found my watch and gauntlet next to the armoire and put those on as well before leaving my room.

When I got to the main hall I found Hades sitting in his throne at the head of the table with a lot of various papers. I couldn't be bothered to ask what they were yet. I was too hungry.

"Can I get some food?" I asked, drawing the god's attention to me.

"Ah, you're finally awake," he said.

By the time I sat down at my end of the table there was a plate bigger than my head piled with french fries, fried chicken, and steak.

"Is this medium-rare?" I asked.

The steak changed. "Sorry," Hades responded.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked before shoving a handful of french fries in my mouth.

"About five days," he said.

"Damn," I said. "That shadow-traveling really does a number. Can I get something to drink?"

A glass of water appeared next to my plate and I downed the entire thing then said, "thanks."

"Yes, it does," he said. "And the blood loss and broken bones didn't help either."

"Broken bones?" I inquired.

"You were unconscious when you fell into Persephone's garden. It was no small drop. It would have killed any mortal."

"I'm no mortal," I said after finishing a piece of fried chicken. "And thanks for healing me."

"You're welcome," he said.

"I think you'll have to teach me that," I said and started on a second piece of chicken.

"Maybe not."

"Hmm?"

"You're familiar with the curse of Achilles?"

I swallowed my bite. "Yeah."

"It'll make you completely invulnerable except for one weak spot of your choosing. You could have been killed by Thanatos. I think this may be your best bet to stand a chance against stronger gods."

I pondered for a second. "What would I have to do? Just go for a swim in the Styx?"

"It's a bit trickier than that. First you have to get your mother's permission."

"What? Why?"

"Achilles was dipped into the Styx by his mother as a child. Without her he'd have disintegrated. And if he'd gone in when he was old enough to make the decision himself, the curse wouldn't be able to grasp on without his mother's permission. Don't ask me how it works. Lady Styx came up with it. Something about a mother's love is the greatest magic or some other nonsense."

"So I'm going back to New York," I said. "Are there any gods I should kill while I'm up there?"

"Even if you do encounter one, I'd advise you not to face them. Thanatos definitely wasn't the best in melee combat yet he almost bested you. And we haven't yet thought about strategy. There could be repercussions following any god's death that could set us back a mile. Thanatos's death could or could not prove disadvantageous. It's best not to risk it. A war is something you don't want to rush."

I took the last bite of my steak and pushed my empty plate away. My cup had refilled itself with water so I drank from that again. "And while I'm up there I should look into gaining some info from Camp Half-Blood, maybe start to persuade a couple of allies away from their parents."

"That's a good idea, but I urge you to take this step with caution. No doubt your name is an infamous one by now. Only reveal yourself to the people you trust. Anyone else could attack you on sight. Not that you couldn't take them, of course, but it wouldn't look good for our cause if you started fighting camp members."

"Right." I thought again about what the Entity said to me. 'Eventually one will join you and the other will be your enemy.' "I don't know who I can entirely trust. Perhaps I could borrow your Helm of Darkness to spy on them?"

Hades thought. "Perhaps I could. But a god does not go lending their objects of power away freely. And perhaps you already have the ability to go invisible. Thanatos was known for reaping souls while invisible and we don't know yet what power you absorbed from him."

"Yeah, maybe," I said. I summoned Krinos and stared into its lines, admiring the intricate patterns while I looked through myself. Then I heard a whisper. A single word in the back of my mind. I repeated the word in my head, willing the magic it held to run through my body into the world and suddenly the ground cracked next to me and a pair of skeletal hands pushed on the ground and climbed up, revealing a skeleton with bones the color of coal wielding a sword made of iron, I assumed. "Huh," I said. I again searched my mind and found the way to dismiss it, and the world swallowed the skeleton back up. "So no invisibility then."

"Then I guess I have to lend you my Helm," Hades said. "But like I said, I cannot do it freely. You must do me a favor."

"Fine," I said. "What do you want?"

"I have two demigod children," he said.

That surprised me. "Really?" I said. "What about the pact?"

"They're in Las Vegas, where they've been for nearly seventy years, born before the pact was made."

"What?"

"The Lotus Hotel and Casino is home of the lotus eaters. Are you familiar with them?"

"Not quite."

"Well they have a very strong magic surrounding the Casino, warping time and the minds of its tenants. While a person may feel like they've been having the best time of their life for an hour, they've really been in there for several days."

"Wow."

"After World War II, Zeus tried to kill them and succeeded in killing their mother. To protect them, I wiped their minds in the River Lethe and put them in the Lotus Casino and they've been there ever since."

"So you want me to retrieve them from the Casino and bring them back here," I said.

"No. I want you to take them to Camp Half-Blood."

"To camp? Why there?"

"Well first of all, whoever you do trust at camp would be more likely to trust you after you've safely delivered two demigod children. And second, I think the camp is the best place for them to develop their powers. When you drop them off, do not tell them about the gods' true nature, nor that you and I are their enemies."

"But won't dropping them at camp instead of bringing them here give you a more negative impression in their eyes?"

He hesitated. "Even still, camp is the best place for them. Just tell them I sent you to save them. I'll try and communicate with them later."

"Alright. But who's to say none of the gods are going to kidnap them or kill them because they're your kids?"

"I've considered that. First, they wouldn't kill them. That'd send them here. That'd be the last thing they want. And second, the gods will know they have no affiliation or alliance with me. Children of mine have been known to be powerful and they'll want them on their side, happy and healthy. Let me put it this way: any demigod at camp is guaranteed to work for the gods, in their eyes. They'll be safe there."

"That makes sense. One last thing before I go, should I say anything to Chiron? Is he someone we want as an ally?"

"No," he said without consideration. "Chiron's sole purpose is to train demigods. He's never wanted to be part of any wars nor get involved in the gods' affairs. He just trains demigods so they don't get killed when the gods force them to do those things instead."

"Point taken," I said and got to my feet. I walked over to Hades. "And the Helm?"

Hades pulled it out from underneath the table (I doubt it was under there before) and handed it to me.

"I will return eventually," I said.

* * *

My first stop was Las Vegas. I'd seen enough pictures of the city to be able to not have to have a photograph of it to shadow travel there, although where I ended up was less predictable. I actually appeared right in the middle of the fountain in front of Caesars Palace, which was actually quite convenient because the tiredness I'd felt from shadow traveling was replaced with a burst of energy from my contact with the water. I took the Helm of Darkness and immediately put it on my head because I was almost positive there'd be security in such a high traffic area like this.

As soon as the helm was entirely over my head, I felt nothing, but saw and heard everything around me. I could no longer feel the water touching my body. In fact, I felt it run through me, like I wasn't even there. And when I tried to move to get out of the fountain, my feet didn't walk. My entire body glided forward like I was a ghost. When I got to the edge of the fountain, I didn't step over it but just moved through it like it wasn't there.

I didn't like it at all. I felt powerful, way too powerful. It was a taste of omnipotence and I wasn't supposed to have it. I felt invincible, untouchable. It felt wrong. And I felt something else too. I felt a pull of energy, of malice. I felt fear holed up inside the helm, begging to be released, to be radiated away and into the minds of the mortals surrounding me, but I wouldn't let it. I took the helmet off as soon as I was in the clear and never wanted to put it back on, even though I knew I'd eventually need to.

And when the helmet was off I felt a rush of weakness fill me. I felt every part of my body reentering existence and felt my sense restrict back into the limited abilities mortals have. I saw only what was in front of me, and heard only what was near me. It made me feel maddeningly weak, but it felt normal. It felt good. I felt real and human again.

I examined the helmet and noticed the bridge dividing the eyes was long enough that I could slide it into my pocket with the rest of the helmet hanging out without falling. Not knowing really where to go, I decided to go toward Caesars Palace to find a tour guide who could hopefully point me in the right direction. Before I found a tour guide, however, I found a map of Las Vegas and stopped to examine it. The first thing that caught my eye was a large arrow with an oval filled with the words, "Lotus Hotel & Casino". The text was bigger than all the other landmarks'.

"That's strange," I muttered under my breath. I continued to examine the rest of the map and found quite a few landmark's scratched out, including Caesars Palace. I could only assume that someone came and scratched out all the other hotels and casinos because they really want people going to the Lotus. I studied the map for a few more seconds to get my bearings then took off.

* * *

After about a thirty minute walk I arrived at a building with a large neon sign (currently off) that read, 'Lotus Hotel & Casino'. The words were surrounded by a ton of of flowers, die, cards, etc. It had four sets of double doors all right next to each other so swarms of people could enter at once, even though everyone on the street didn't even act like the Lotus existed, let alone enter it.

I pushed open the doors and stepped inside to be immediately hit by a wave of various noises and a strong, flowery scent. My eyes were attacked as well by so, so many lights. Just take the most extravagant, crowded casino you've seen either in a movie or in person and this place was ten times that.

I continued deeper into the casino to find Hades's children. Before I left the Underworld he told me they were of Italian descent, their names were Nico and Bianca, and Bianca should be around eleven while Nico is around nine.

As I walked I noticed quite a few people wearing tuxedos avoiding me. I looked at one and he immediately averted his eyes, but they flicked down toward my waist first where the Helm was. Those people are employees and clearly know exactly what is in my possession, and were likely afraid of me. I ignored them and began searching.

The place was incredible. There was literally everything you could ever need here. There were pinball machines and other arcade games themed around any movie you could imagine from any era. There was even one for Citizen Kane that young couple were enjoying that I could only assume were from the nineteen-forties. There was an arcade game that I could just make out was for The Adventures of Pluto Nash. The reason I had a hard time making it out was because there was a small crowd of people around it, all wearing 3D glasses.

It wasn't long before the casino started catering itself to my own tastes. I saw a pretty advanced surfboard simulator, a buffet table filled with exclusively blue foods, and something that made me stop in my tracks. There was an arcade game that looked a lot like a deer hunter game (with plastic guns included) but instead of shooting deer, you shoot Olympians. I was about to continue on but then I noticed there was a similarly themed version of Whack-A-Mole. And for the icing on the cake, next to that was a dart board with Poseidon's face on it. And it wasn't just a picture stapled onto the the board. No, the board was expertly designed to feature my father's face.

I turned around and noticed an employee looking at me expectantly, but averted her gaze.

This place is reading my mind, I thought to myself. I need to find Nico and Bianca and get out of here fast. These people could be mining my brain for information to sell to the Olympians.

I picked up my pace and continued looking.

After about ten minutes I finally spotted a girl a bit younger than myself playing a Tetris arcade game. The girl wore a black long-sleeve shirt and fitting pair of jeans as well as a green beret on her head.

"Bianca?" I said.

She hesitated for a second and looked confused before turning to face me. "Are. . . you talking to me?" she asked.

"Is your name Bianca Di Angelo?" I asked.

She seemed extremely confused. "I — I think so. . ." she said. She looked to be thinking pretty hard before finally saying, "Yeah. It is. I couldn't remember. . ."

"Where's your brother?"

She thought hard for a couple of seconds. "Nico. . . I don't know. Why? Who are you? You're different from everyone else here."

"I'm here to rescue you. This place isn't safe. We need to leave."

"I'm so confused," she said. "I don't remember anything. Just this place. Nothing but this place."

"I can help you, but we need to find your brother."

"Alright. I think I remember he liked the fantasy type games. He'll be by those."

"Lead the way."

A few minutes later we'd found a boy a couple of years younger than Bianca with black hair and pale skin. Nico had the same confused state and lack of memory that Bianca had. After convincing him this casino was evil, we left. I got more nervous glances at the Helm of Darkness from the staff as well as some glares because I was stealing away two patrons.

After getting outside a bit of their confusion wore off but that wasn't saying much. I noticed the sun was absent from the sky and the streets were glowing from tons of neon signs. It wasn't even midday when I'd went in.

Bianca turned to me and said, "Alright. Explain yourself."

"That's going to take a while," I said. "We should get somewhere private first."

I began to walk in a random direction while the Di Angelos followed me. I found an empty alley and led them down that.

"Alright," I said. "What do you know about Greek mythology?"

"Not a whole lot," Bianca said.

"Me neither," said Nico.

"Well it's all real. The gods, the monsters, the demigods, magic. Everything," I said, and had to restrain myself from saying anything negative toward the gods.

They didn't seem convinced. Nico however looked like he wanted to believe it but was a bit skeptical.

I held up my armored hand and summoned a flame. Their black eyes lit up and Bianca took a couple steps back. I extinguished the flame.

"That's so cool!" Nico said.

"Do you believe me?" I asked.

Nico nodded vigorously and Bianca gave a single nod with a shocked expression on her face.

"I'm a demigod," I said. "I have one god as a parent and one mortal. You two are also demigods."

"What? How is that possible?" Bianca said.

"Well when a god finds a mortal they like enough, things happen and demigods are born. Your father is a god."

"That doesn't make any sense, though."

"Why not? It's true. And I'm going to take you to a camp where demigods go to train and live their lives safe from monsters."

"Okay," said Bianca. "Say this is all true. Explain how that casino was dangerous and why we're struggling to remember anything?"

"The casino is filled with magic that warps its tenants' minds to want to stay in there forever. And time is also slowed down in there. How long did you feel like you were in there for?"

"About a month or two," Bianca said.

"You were in there for several decades."

"Tha — that can't be. There's no way."

"It's true," I said. "You went in there during the nineteen-forties. It's now two thousand-five."

"I don't. . ." Bianca said.

Nico's eyes were wide and he looked to be deep in thought.

"It's alright," I said. "You don't have to process all of this right now. Just know that I'm not lying to you. Camp Half-Blood is where you're going to go. There are a lot of other demigods there that will help you understand this new world you've been thrust into and how to control your powers."

"We have powers?" Nico said excitedly.

"Well, yeah," I said. "You're half god."

"So will I be able to fly? And summon fire like you? And create lightning strikes?"

"Uh, I don't know. It all depends on who your godly parent is."

"So you don't know?" Bianca said.

"No," I lied.

"So how are we going to get to this camp of yours?" Bianca asked. "Drive? Fly?"

"Definitely not flying," I said. "But we're not driving either. We're going to shadow-travel."

"What's that?" Nico asked.

"We're going to melt into the shadows and come out somewhere else."

"Is that possible?" Bianca asked.

"That sounds so cool!" Nico said.

"Just hold on tight," I said. "You might get a little nauseous."


	7. I-O

After arriving at Camp Half-Blood I nearly collapsed from exhaustion, but I was able to keep my balance and tell Nico and Bianca where to go. When they started walking toward the camp's borders I put on the Helm of Darkness and once again felt the immense rush of power. All exhaustion left my body because, well, I no longer had a body. I was more awake than I'd ever been. And I also felt that tug again. Crippling fear bottled up inside the helm wanting nothing but to be released and spread over any and all living beings in the vicinity, but I again restrained it.

I tried to walk toward camp but I had no legs so I glided instead. As I came up to Thalia's tree I instinctively moved around it even though I could have just phased right through it. As I entered camp I saw Chiron in his wheelchair form greeting Nico and Bianca. Annabeth was there too, being friendly and welcoming.

Seeing her made my heart dip a tiny bit. I hadn't realized until now that I'd been missing her, Luke, and camp. I missed just being a kid. I missed fitting in, being a part of a community. I missed having friends. Perhaps when everything is over and done with I can have that again. But I couldn't think about that right now.

I'd told Nico and Bianca to not mention me. I knew Chiron and Annabeth were smart enough to put together that the "young twelve year old boy with black hair and green eyes that brought us here" is me, and I didn't want the other campers to be skeptical of them just because they were affiliated with me.

After a couple of minutes passed, Annabeth split off with Nico and Bianca and took them to the Hermes cabin. After Annabeth knocked on the door it opened and one of the other Hermes campers appeared. A few seconds after that Luke appeared as well.

Then my vision rippled. I was in the arena and the sky was a deep shade of blue. I saw Luke in the center with a jar. The vision zoomed in on them. Inside the jar was a fierce looking scorpion that was orange, red, and black and about twice as big as you'd expect a scorpion to be. It appeared to be restrained to the bottom of the jar. He wore a pair of thick leather gloves as well. Luke set the jar on the ground and picked up a sword from beside him.

With a single fell swoop he sliced through the jar and through the scorpion and it exploded into golden dust. Luke reached his covered hand into the pile of dust and picked up something. I zoomed in on it and saw that it was the scorpion's stinger. Luke stood and that was when the vision ended.

That really caught me off guard. It'd been so long since I'd seen a premonition of the future that I'd completely forgotten I had that ability.

I thought about what I'd just seen and moved closer toward Annabeth, Luke, and the Di Angelos

'Eventually one will join you and the other will be your enemy.' The Entity's voice again echoed through my mind.

I stared intently at Luke, trying to see ulterior motives hidden within his movements, his eyes, or his voice.

'. . . your enemy,' echoed through my head over and over again.

* * *

Night slowly crept up on the arena as I patiently waited for Luke to show up. About thirty minutes after the sun had fully disappeared, he entered the arena. He held the jar with the scorpion inside it and wore the same pair of leather gloves.

After watching through the entire ordeal again I followed him out of the arena. We passed the cabins, the big house, and the entire camp. Luke finally stopped when he reached Thalia's pine tree. He pulled the stinger out from his pocket and I figured out what he was about to do.

"Why?" is all I said once the helm was off.

Luke immediately unsheathed his sword, whipped around and leveled it at me. "Percy?" he said, shocked and confused.

"Why are you going to poison Thalia's pine tree?" I asked.

Luke lowered his sword. "Percy, I can explain. We can work together on this. The gods want you dead. They won't tell us why. But whatever qualms you have with them, I share them too."

I kept silence and gestured towards Thalia's tree.

"Alright. I need the golden fleece as a part of our plan. I was going to poison the tree and they'd send someone out on a mission to get — "

"And then you'd steal it from them and leave the tree to die," I finished. "And leave the camp unguarded and the demigods you once called family open to mortal danger."

"I'd give it back once I was done with it."

"And any monster attacks/demigod deaths that occur while the camp's unsafe and you have the fleece?"

He paused. "Collateral damage."

I summoned Krinos and pointed it at him. "Who's 'our'?" I asked.

"What?"

"You said this is a part of 'our plan'. Who are you working with?"

He went silent. I pushed Krinos closer to him and he said, "Kronos."

"The titan?" I said. "The one that Zeus chopped to pieces?"

He didn't say anything.

"Answer me!" I said.

He still said nothing. In fact, he didn't move a millimeter. He was frozen. Time was frozen. I dismissed Krinos and turned around and saw the Entity.

"I could give you another orb," he said. "This one will show you Luke's ideal future. I can show you every human's death his actions cause, mortal or demigod. I can show you every act of malice and selfishness he will commit, all out of spite for his father. I can show you what the world will look like when the titans take over and the gods are thrown into Tartarus before you have a chance to kill them. I could. But do I really need to?"

"Does Luke have to be my enemy?" I asked.

"He doesn't," he said. "That choice is yours. But can you forgive malicious intent? He passed off potential unnecessary deaths as 'collateral damage' so easily. And think about what I told you. If you persuade Luke away from his path and onto yours, that means Annabeth will be your enemy. Also, mind this: Luke's actions are on the basis that the gods are ignorant of their children, and that's it. Other than that, the gods in his mind are still what every other demigod in this camp believes them to be."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"What you do is your decision, not mine." He disappeared and suddenly I was back in the position I was in before time froze with Krinos pointed at Luke.

I could kill him. I could. It'd be so easy. But I couldn't. Killing a god was easy. It was like killing a spider. No remorse. I don't need to think twice about it. But Luke's a human. It just wouldn't feel right. Killing him would make me far worse than he has the potential to be.

I dismissed Krinos. "Leave," I said. "Never come back to camp. Go join your titan friends."

"You're making a mistake, Percy," he said. "You can be an enemy of the gods, but you can't run from the titans. They will kill you unless you align yourself to them."

I wanted to say, "Not if I kill them first," but I held my tongue.

* * *

Come morning I found and watched Annabeth from a distance. I wanted to talk to her, but I couldn't do it when other people were around, so I waited until she was alone. Finally, after about thirty minutes she went into the forest and I followed her and took off the Helm of Darkness.

"Annabeth," I said.

She turned around and froze when she saw me. "Percy?"

"Annabeth I — what are you doing?" I asked when I saw her unsheathe her dagger.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "You shouldn't have come back."

"You're not happy to see me?" I said lightheartedly.

"The gods want you dead, Percy. Whatever you did, it can't be good."

"Put the dagger away," I said. "I'm not here to hurt you. I just need to talk to you."

"What did you do?"

I hesitated. "I killed Atropos and Thanatos."

She didn't seem convinced, although did show a surprised expression at my claim. "That's impossible. You can't kill a god," she said.

"I can. "

"I don't know why I'm bothering to ask because it isn't true, but why would you do that? That's murder."

"The gods aren't who you think they are," I said. "They're horrible. They're monsters. They're just as bad as the titans were. Every demigod here is likely the result of some sort of sick trick or assault on our mortal parents."

"Stop," she said.

"Alright."

"That can't be true. The world's intact because of them. They keep the balance."

"They play with mortals for sport. Our lives are meaningless to them. And we don't need the gods."

"That's ridiculous. If the gods die their domains would dissipate and the world begin to descend back into chaos."

"Not true," I said. "Atropos was the determiner of death, was she not? People are still dying. Thanatos reaped souls and took them to the underworld, did he not? People's souls are still going to the underworld safely and at the same rate. The gods aren't important, and they need to be pay the price for their actions."

"And why should I believe any of this? Why should I trust you? You show up at camp for a few weeks, disappear and then Hermes comes to camp to tell us that your death is their maximum priority. And Dionysus who was supposed to serve as camp counselor here for a hundred years leaves camp unannounced the day you arrived."

"It's because they're afraid of me."

"Afraid of a demigod?"

"Yes."

"Again. Why should I believe you? This is all completely ludicrous."

I thought for a second then summoned Krinos.

"I spoke to Hestia the first day here and she said this wasn't Greek," I told her. "If it's not Greek then the gods didn't want me to have something this powerful, yet I do."

I commanded the ground behind me to break open and two black skeletal warriors rose from the ground before I made the earth swallow them back up. Annabeth retreated several steps at this.

"I'm a son of Poseidon, yet I can do that. I have power the gods didn't intend me to have, and they're afraid of me for it. And I intend to use it to right the wrong in the world. And I just safely delivered two demigods to camp yesterday, so that also sort of proves my trustworthiness."

"Bianca and Nico?" Annabeth said. "That was you?"

"Annabeth, I need you to trust me."

"You haven't given me any reason to," she said. "You can't just expect me to throw away everything I've known since I was seven years old."

I was about to start talking without knowing what I was even going to say, but my vision rippled yet again. I was on a small cruise ship. I looked around and saw several bloodstains on the deck. I moved through to the inside of the boat. I saw a digital clock on the wall that read, '7:51' and had today's date in the bottom right corner. I moved again and saw a pile of bodies, all wearing blood-stained white suits. I assumed they were the ship's workers. The ones on top had thin wounds placed perfectly over their hearts. I moved again and now I was in the ship's boiler room. There were at least two dozen people tied up and unconscious there. I saw five children and the rest were older teens and adults. I moved again and this time I was in what appeared to be the ship's control room. At the helm was who could only be Apollo. On his back was a quiver of arrows, several of which were bloodied at the tip. Then the vision ended.

"What time is it?" I asked immediately.

"I don't know," she replied. "What just happened. Your eyes — "

"It doesn't matter. What time is it?"

Annabeth reached into her pocket and pulled out a cheap cell-phone and looked at the time. "7:50," she said.

"I need to show you something," I said. "Do you have your invisibility cap?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Put it on and grab my hand."

She appeared hesitant.

"Hurry! We don't have much time. It's already too late to save anyone."

She took her Yankees cap out of her pocket and put it on and she disappeared. I held out my hand and felt her tentatively grab it.

"Don't let go," I said as I began to phase us into the shadows.

We appeared on the main deck of the ship and I let go of Annabeth's hand. The crew members were already dead. I heard a shocked gasp next to me and I assumed Annabeth noticed the bloodstains too.

I began to walk toward the door I guessed led to the inside of the ship but before I could get there an unnatural spout of water shot from the ocean and landed right in front of the door. But instead of splashing and pooling onto the deck, it took shape and solidified into a man. He wore a Hawaiian print button-up shirt, shorts, a pair of sandals, and a very aquatic looking crown on his temple. In his right hand he also held a tall, solid gold trident.

"Hello, son," said Poseidon.

There was a flash of light and Apollo appeared right next to him.

"Poseidon!," he complained. "Why are you trying to ruin my fun?"

"It's Perseus's fault that I'm here, actually," Poseidon replied.

"But you made it!"

"It?" I said.

"What are you doing here?" Apollo asked. "You going to try and kill us? Atropos and Thanatos were weak. You can't best us."

"Surely you wouldn't want to kill your own father," Poseidon said.

"And what are you doing here?" I asked Apollo. "Just murdering a ship full of people for no reason?"

"Well actually I just wanted to go on a cruise," he replied. "This ship looked easy enough to commandeer. I work so hard, I deserve a break, don't I?"

"And I assume afterward those crew members are going to be brought back to life and the people you have tied up downstairs are going to be set free, of course," I said with sarcastic anger in my voice.

He paused. "Alright, what is this really about? I wanted to go on a cruise and sink the ship after I'm done. Is that so wrong?"

"Yes! You're taking innocent lives!"

"You mortals are always so boring. 'Ooh! Innocent people! Needless death! Blah, blah, blah, blah!'," he mocked.

"Enough!" Poseidon said and slammed his trident on the ground creating a loud thud. "Apollo. Leave. I think Perseus and I need to talk alone."

"Fine," said the sun god. "But you owe me a cruise."

I felt a tug in my gut as he started to glow, trying to teleport away. This time I didn't pull back on it and let him leave.

As soon as he was gone a giant ice spike erupted through the ship between my father and I.

"No!" I yelled.

"You can't save them," said Poseidon, referring to the people tied up in the boiler room.

I felt a hand tightly grab onto my wrist. I'd nearly forgotten Annabeth was there.

"Are you going to run?" my father asked. "Go back to the Underworld with my brother? Return the Helm of Darkness?"

If it weren't for Annabeth's hand I would have summoned Krinos and probably gotten myself killed in my anger. Instead, as the water pooled onto the deck and the ship sunk, we fell back into the shadows.

* * *

"Dammit!" I yelled. We came out of the shadows pretty deep in the camp's forest. I was so angry I punched a tree with my bare hand. "I'll kill them both!"

I sat down to try and cool off and alleviate some of my anger. I looked at the tree and realized a scared nymph was probably mad at me. "Sorry," I said in the tree's direction.

I noticed Annabeth sitting with her back against a tree. Her knees were close to her chest and her Yankees cap was on the ground next to her. Her eyes were on the ground. I decided to give her time to process.

After a couple of minutes Annabeth spoke. "Why didn't you kill them?"

"What?" I said.

"Apollo and Poseidon. You said you can kill gods. Why didn't you kill them?"

I paused. "I'm not strong enough yet," I admitted. "Apollo was right. Atropos and Thanatos were weak, that's why I was able to defeat them. But there's no way I could take on an Olympian yet. Especially not my father, or any of the 'big three'."

Annabeth didn't say anything.

After a long pause, I said, "Hades is the exception."

"What?" she said.

"Hades isn't evil. I don't want him dead. He's done nothing to warrant it. He's my ally."

"The Helm of Darkness," she said. "That's why you have it. Hades gave it to you. And Poseidon said you'd go back to the Underworld."

"He let me borrow it," I corrected.

"But how can you be so sure you can trust him? How can you know he's not as bad as Poseidon and Apollo?"  
"I know a lot more than I care to. I saw every god except him do horrendous things. Unspeakable things. Far worse than what just happened on that boat."

"Every god?" she said with less than an ounce of hope in her voice.

"Including the minor gods," I confirmed then paused. "And your mother."

She picked up her cap and stared at it.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"For what?" she asked.

"For taking your life away from you. You could have died happily thinking the gods are righteous and I was the villain. I stole that from you. But I need you."

She looked up at me. "It's better this way."

"But you can't tell anyone else."

There was a delay in her response. "Yeah. I know."

"I need you at camp. I need you as my informant. And I need your brain too."

Nothing was said for another couple of minutes, but I broke the silence, remembering what had happened the previous night.

"The gods are going to be fighting two wars," I said.

"Two?" she said.

"One against me." I hesitated. "And one against Luke."

"What? Luke? What are you talking about?"

"Last night I stopped Luke from poisoning Thalia's pine tree. He wanted a camper to go on a quest to find the Golden Fleece, then he'd steal it and use it to resurrect Kronos."

"That makes no sense. Why would Luke do that?"

"Luke has his own qualms with the gods, but ridiculously petty compared to mine. He wants to start the second Titanomachy."

She was too shocked to say anything.

"Luke's ideal future is far worse than a future where I don't kill the gods. The gods are bad, but the titans are worse."

"I just can't believe this. Luke. . . He. . ."

"I know," I said.

* * *

About half an hour later, Annabeth had collected herself and returned to camp, ready to play the role of spy. I told her that Nico and Bianca were Hades's kids and that keeping them safe was her main priority.

I left camp pretty tired, having shadow traveled several times and not slept in at least twenty-four hours. It was an accident that I'd stayed up that long. Wearing the Helm of Darkness made me unable to feel my body, to feel anything. So I didn't feel all the exhaustion I'd been gathering.

Nevertheless, I still had one more thing to do before I could return to my bed in the underworld and sleep. I borrowed Annabeth's cell phone and called a cab before I left the camp's boundaries. I wasn't going to shadow travel again for fear of just collapsing upon arrival. I waited for about half an hour pretty far from the camp so as to not alert any suspicion toward the area.

I got in the cab and gave the driver my mom's apartment address and fell asleep on the ride there.

"Hey, kid!" the cabbie said, jolting me awake. "We're here. At least, as close as we can get."

Confused, I looked out the window and surrounding the apartment complex that my mom lived in was caution tape and police cars, as well as all of the other residents.

I quickly reached into my pocket and fished out a drachma and tossed it up front.

"That's solid gold," I said and didn't wait for his response as I bolted toward the building. I reached the tape and was stopped by an NYPD officer.

"Stand back," she said.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Do you live here?"

"Yeah," I said, although unofficially it wasn't true. "What happened?"

"There's been a homicide in this building."

My heart sank.

"We've spoken to witnesses and other tenants and the man was identified to be a Gabe Ugliano," said the officer.

"That's my stepdad!" I said. "Where's my mom? I have to get in there!"

"Calm down. There's no sign of your mother in the apartment and none of the witnesses have claimed to be the man's wife. She probably hasn't come home yet."

I walked away from her and searched the crowd of people. None of them looked like my mother. When no one was looking, I put on the Helm of Darkness and rushed through the crowd, into the building, and up the stairs. There were several police officers inside my mom's apartment and on the ground there lay my horrible step father, Gabe. Some of the police officers were talking but I mostly ignored them.

That is, I ignored them until I heard, "Cause of death: Three puncture wounds in the chest."

"So he was stabbed three times?" another officer said.

"Could be, but they line up too perfectly. You could line a ruler across the three wounds and would see that the distance between the middle wound and the outer wounds is exactly the same in both cases, and they connect in a perfectly straight line."

"So what are you saying? He was stabbed by a big fork? Or a trident?"

"That seems to be our safest guess at the moment."

The last sentence faded out until I couldn't even hear them anymore because as soon as I heard trident, I began to fall. The earth swallowed me up and I rushed straight through to the Underworld without even taking the Helm off or summoning Krinos.

* * *

"He has my mom!" I yelled.

"Yes," Hades agreed. "I know. But there is nothing to be done about it yet."

"But what if — ?"

"He might," he admitted solemnly. "But as long as she is alive, which she shall remain, we are not in a rush to rescue her."

I sighed and sat down, trying to convince myself that Poseidon wouldn't torture her too much. Getting myself killed is not the solution. My father is trying to bait me, and it won't work until I'm more powerful. "She's strong," I said. "She can survive."

"Alright. Now we must get back to work," said Hades. "My children. They're safe?"

"Yes," I said, happy to distract myself from thinking about my mother, although it didn't work. "And I've obtained an ally within camp. She witnessed Poseidon and Apollo killing a ship full of civilians first hand. We can trust her. And I've made it clear to her that Bianca and Nico's safety is of paramount importance. She's making sure they don't leave camp."

"Thank you. And who is this ally?"

"She's a daughter of Athena; Annabeth Chase."

"Athena," he said. "Interesting. That's a well chosen informant. And we could use a bit of genius and mortal insight when thinking strategy."

"Yes. But we have an issue."

"And what is that?"

"Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes, is trying to resurrect Kronos. The second Titanomachy is starting."

There was a pause.

"You're joking," said Hades. "That — that's perfect! What luck!"

"How is that perfect? The titans would be — "

"Oh, far worse than the gods, I know. But wars don't end in a day. You need to get stronger, and we'll want a few years to put you on par with the Olympians. And this war will distract the gods for several years. Of course you might have to step in a few times to keep demigods safe and ensure the gods win the war, and that's even more perfect. Field practice. And if you can kill a god, I doubt you won't be able to kill a titan. Imagine the powers you can obtain from them! This is absolutely incredible."

"Huh," I said. "I didn't think about it that way."

"Alright. A while ago we started listing gods and were going to begin our plans, but we were interrupted by your leaving to kill Thanatos. But I'm glad we were. If we'd finished our plans then, right now we'd be scrapping them and starting over because the Titanomachy changes everything. Okay. You're likely tired, so get some sleep. And when you awake I suggest you fetch your spy and we can begin planning a war."


	8. Quadrennial

The next four years of my life were pretty uneventful. I mean, it's definitely been more eventful than most people's, but for someone whose sole purpose is to tear down the gods one by one, not a lot happened. I spent a lot of my time in the Underworld, training with Hades or sleeping. The rest of my time was spent at camp, watching over the demigods to ensure their safety, and to also ground myself to the real world by having a friend to talk to: Annabeth. We became pretty good friends over time. It was really nice to talk to her. It helped me remember that I was still human, and prevented me from becoming this autonomous machine that just wants to kill gods. Granted, my determination to save my mother from my father helped in that aspect as well.

Some interesting things did occur throughout my four year monotony, however. Let's start with the deaths of the twins.

It was about two months after the events on the boat. I'd just popped up from the Underworld to Camp Half-Blood as I now routinely do and eavesdropped on a camp cabin leader meeting. I was in a corner of the big house wearing Annabeth's Yankees cap — or I should say my Yankees cap. Soon after she learned of her mother's true nature she said she couldn't bear to wear it any more as it reminded her of the betrayal she'd felt and the lies she'd been told so she insisted I took it. I was very happy to receive it because I never wanted to wear the Helm of Darkness again. Wearing it made me feel a maddening level of power.

This time there were more than just the twelve cabin leaders at the table. There were two young girls wearing silver jackets with braided hair and bows and quivers of arrows slung over their shoulders. They also had some kind of invisible aura around them that I couldn't explain. The older of the two girls was about a year above me and had a silver circlet on her brow with a crescent moon in the middle. They were two of Artemis's followers. I wondered if either of them were one of the ones the moon goddess brainwashed and forced into her hunt.

During the meeting I learned that the older girl's name was Zoë and the other's was Phoebe. They were at camp because Artemis had been M.I.A. for a couple of weeks and Apollo took it upon himself to deliver them here. The hunters wanted to go on a quest to find their leader/potential kidnapper so Chiron sent Zoë up to the oracle of Delphi to get a prophecy. After she came back she named Phoebe and another of her fellow hunters and began preparation for the quest.

After the meeting was over I waited for Annabeth to be able to slip away unnoticed and took the two of us to Hades' palace to discuss the situation. She'd been down there several times during those two months. Hades would never admit it but her intelligence and wit was just as useful as his own, so I made sure she was always there whenever strategizing took place.

After the first couple of weeks since getting Annabeth on our side we'd finished making several lists. In the notebook that Hades had given me right before I killed Thanatos we finished writing down all the names of the gods that still exist. The rest of the pages were filled with the names of the gods again but separated into categories. There was a list for the gods that are a threat and need to be killed soon, one filled with gods whose deaths are of low priority, and a rather short list filled with the names of the gods I'd already killed. There was also another list that contained the names of gods of whom were unclear when they should die.

"Artemis is missing," I said once the three of us were in the same room. "We think the titans might have captured her."

"What's your evidence?" Hades asked.

"Artemis's hunters were brought to Camp Half-Blood by Apollo and they say she vanished without a word several weeks ago," said Annabeth. "When Artemis's lieutenant, Zoë Nightshade got a prophecy, she informed Chiron and the cabin leaders that the oracle told her to go to Mount Tamalpais. And that's where Mount Othrys is settled, right?"

"What was the prophecy exactly?" Hades questioned.

"We don't know," I said. "She refused to say."

Hades thought. "Hmm. The oracle has always been very observant, even in her cursed state. I believe she knew you were in the room, and made it clear to miss Nightshade that she shouldn't repeat the entire prophecy out loud."

"That makes sense," I said.

"Perhaps using the Yankees cap is too much of a risk to take," he said. "With my helm you'd have zero chances of being detected."

"No," I said. "I hate that thing. It makes me feel godlike. And I hate gods. Present company excluded."

"Fine."

"And the oracle is Apollo's thing, right? I think it might be a good idea to kill him sooner rather than later. That thing could be harmful to us."

"I think you're right," said Annabeth. "And Artemis is on the T.B.D. list, right?"

I reached into my pocket and took out the little black notebook that contained all the lists. I had it on my person at all times. I flipped to the page Annabeth mentioned and said, "Yeah."

"It would make sense to kill her now," continued Annabeth. "All of her hunters are already at camp so they'll be safe when they lose her protection. And if Percy kills the titan's captive it'll make them think that we're not really their enemy, and all of their focus will be on Olympus."

"And Artemis's death will make Apollo reckless, making it easier for Perseus to kill him," said Hades.

"So the plan is for me to follow the three hunters on their quest to make sure they're safe, find and kill Artemis, then wait for Apollo to hear the news and kill him too?" I said.

"That sounds good," said Hades. "Although you should probably wear something other than your usual attire, so if you have to reveal yourself to ensure the hunters' safety they won't make the connection between the mysterious figure and Olympus's most wanted."

My 'usual attire' consists of dark blue jeans and a leather jacket over an interchangeable t-shirt. And if it's cold I'll also wear a beanie. Also, after I started wearing the leather jacket Annabeth pointed out to me that a solid white trident covered the back, and disappeared when I summoned Krinos. I assumed that Krinos no longer took a tattoo form.

"Good call," I said. "Give me something big and loose, so that my gender isn't clear. If the hunters know I'm a 'filthy male' they won't be so welcoming to my assistance."

"You think you can pass for a girl?" Annabeth teased.

"With baggy and concealing clothing anyone can pass as anyone," I replied and turned to Hades. "What do you have for me?"

A long light grey and white cloak with a hood appeared on the table with a red face mask and thick leather clothing.

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen," said Annabeth.

"I agree," I said. "But it'll work, and the satisfaction of burning this when this is over is a bonus."

"Also," said Hades, "You'll need this." A reed blow pipe and a pouch full of presumably darts appeared on top of the clothes accompanied with straps for both of them.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Tranquilizers. They last about thirty-six hours. To be used on the hunters before they reach Mount Tamalpais. Their mission is to save their mistress, in which they will fail. There is no need for them to risk their lives by entering the titans' home base."

"You make a good point. Counterpoint: Why bother letting the hunters go on the quest at all?"

"Are you kidding?" Annabeth asked. "They swore vows of eternal loyalty to Artemis. There's no stopping them from following their prophecy. If you tranq them right off the bat, they'll continue thirty-six hours later."

"Right," I said.

After equipping the garbs Hades summoned for me I took Annabeth back to camp, put on my invisibility cap, and found the hunters.

Zoë was talking to her two chosen companions whilst readying for their quest.

"Will you tell us what the full prophecy is?" asked the one called Phoebe.

"I cannot," said Zoë. She looked around cautiously and lowered her voice. "We're being watched. I do not know by whom, or for what purpose."

"A titan spy?" aksed the third hunter. "Or the rogue demigod lady Artemis was hunting?"

"Both are possibilites," replied Zoë. "But we must keep our wits about us and not say anything of importance aloud."

It took a little less than a week for the hunters to reach California. Not much really happened during the journey. There were several encounters with monsters, but nothing too dangerous. They handled them with ease while I watched in admiration.

Also, they traveled on foot. I realized that I'd drastically underestimated their power. They ran so fast and for so long that I had to shadow travel to keep up with them. I felt guilty knowing that I'll be the one to strip them of Artemis's gifts.

During the two months before the start of this quest Hades had taught me some more magic. The first thing he taught me was healing magic, which I mastered in over a month. This proved to be predominately useful with my tailing of the hunters.

The hunters knew I was following them, so I had to be ready for any tricks they might try to use to throw me off their tracks. The only way to do this is by keeping them in my sights at all times, but I'm still human and still need to sleep. Through experimentation I'd discovered I was able to use my healing powers to ward off my exhaustion so I was able to be awake during the entire trip.

But there was a setback to this as performing magic itself is draining on me in an entirely different way. So by using my healing magic to keep myself conscious, I'm effectively just storing my exhaustion away for a later date. What this means is when I inevitably do go to sleep all that lack of it will hit me and I'll likely slumber for a week or more.

Whenever the hunters set up camp I went far enough away so that they wouldn't be able to hear or see me but I could still keep my eye on them. Then I'd practice my aim with the blowpipe Hades provided me. I definitely wasn't the most skilled with it but by the time we'd reached California I'd been able to consistently hit my target (a tree) every time (I wiped the poison from the tip of one dart and reused it when practicing my aim). So I would definitely be able to hit all three of the hunters from a moderate distance.

And that's exactly what I did. When they set up camp to prepare for the trek up Mount Tamalpais I loaded a dart that still had its sleep poison on it and waited for the perfect opportunity. I hit one, then another, and then the third. I missed one shot but they didn't notice it by the time they began to collapse.

Did I feel guilty doing this? Definitely, but it's for their own good. Whoever is on that mountain was strong enough to capture a goddess. What chance did three hunters stand?

I walked for about half an hour before the mountain was finally within my sight. The sky appeared to warp unnaturally and funnel toward the tip of it. Dark clouds and mist (both magical and regular) were very thick around it.

I shadow traveled right near the tip where I could somewhat see what looked like a path. When I came out of the shadows I quickly realized that it wasn't a path and I was now on a very steep slope and fell to my hands and knees. I quickly summoned Krinos and stabbed it into the ground to keep myself from rolling all the way down to the base of the mountain. I looked up and the time of day was impossible to tell from here because there was nothing but dark gray clouds physically meeting the mountain several hundred feet away from me.

I shadow traveled a few more times until I found myself on walk able terrain. I felt tiredness begin to weigh down on me and lifted my armored hand to my chest and concentrated. A golden light glowed from my palm and I felt rejuvenated.

Upon reaching the highest flat part of the mountain I saw a ruin of a fortress that once probably stood as tall and wide as Zeus's palace on Olympus. Slowly, I could see brick by brick settling themselves back into place.

About fifty feet to the right I could see where the sky and the mountain almost met. In between them was a girl that appeared to be around twenty years old but seemed to be getting older by the second. She was struggling under the literal weight of the world. She was fading and her powers dwindling.

A man who could only be Atlas and Luke Castellan emerged from the other side of the reforming palace along with several monsters. Luke was looking older than he actually was and very weak for some reason. By that point my cap was off and folded in a pocket and my hood and face mask were on. Atlas said some things of no importance, Luke was mostly silent and very obedient towards Atlas, or as he called him, 'General'.

The battle went by in such a blur. The zombies among the ranks of monster were up first and were supposed to be some kind of big deal, according to Atlas's ramblings. Apparently they should have been impossible to kill, but seeing as I inherited partial necromancy from Thanatos I cut through their rotted corpses like butter and they stayed dead.

He also sent a massive boar (far larger than any normal boar could possibly be) and a manticore after me. These two were pretty tough to kill, although it was a lot easier when three sets of silver arrows started pelting them as well (some of them might have been aimed at me as well, but none of them hit me). The boar turned toward the three hunters who should have been asleep and swiftly disintegrated when three arrows pierced through its mouth and into its throat. Krinos's lines didn't change color.

The manticore (who had some very rude things to say to me) tried turning toward the hunters as well but I kept it's attention and eventually killed it. Krinos's lines did temporarily turn red this time.

At this point Atlas had run out of monsters. Luke, looking apprehensive, began to step forward but the titan held his arm in front of him, then turned his palm up and grabbed the handle of Luke's sword when Luke placed it in his hand.

Using my armored left hand I summoned a wall of fire in front of the hunters and had to concentrate to keep it up. I'd never actually tried anything that intense with my fire magic before, but I guess it was just an increase in adrenaline that caused my attempt to succeed.

With far more maneuverability than I'd expect someone of his bulk to have, Atlas struck. I parried. The duel began. I actually held up far better than I'd expected to. The titan was far stronger than me and far more skilled with the sword, but somehow I felt a lot faster, more agile. While I wasn't able to predict his movements I was able to see them and move my trident to counter (I later came to realize that this was due to a large increase in my own agility, unwillingly given to me by the manticore).

Even with having to concentrate on keeping the flame wall up, trying not to die, and trying not to let the sadistic look in Atlas's eyes unnerve me, I was able to control the tide of the battle. Slowly, I was able to bring us closer to Artemis and the weight of the world as well as making it seem like he was the one forcing me backwards.

Finally, after a couple minutes of combat I improvised a chain of moves that caught the titan off guard and off balance and used his own energy to cause him to collide with Artemis, knocking her clear from her burden and making the sky fall onto his shoulders. I allowed the wall of flames to disappear.

Atlas screamed in frustration and anger, and said several things to me that I didn't pay attention to, although I did catch the word "daughter". I advanced on Artemis who was getting to her feet.

I almost feel guilty about the way I killed her, but she was the queen of luring men into vulnerable states and killing them before they knew it was happening, so I think it was called for.

Because of my hood and mask and the fact that I'd dismissed Krinos she didn't know who I was, although she was apprehensive of me all the same. I could tell she was struggling with whether or not she wanted to thank me for rescuing her, but she came to her decision too late. She fell to her knees with three gold stains on her stomach as I pulled down my mask so she could see who I was before she died.

Behind me I heard three shouts of disbelief and several twangs of bowstrings, but I quickly put my cap of invisibility over my head and shadow traveled clear of the arrows and watched as they ran toward their fallen mistress.

By the time they reached her she was nothing but ashes and ichor. Their grief made me feel a pang of guilt.

I went to Luke and took off the cap long enough for him to see my face clearly and tell him to run.

* * *

I gave them two days to mourn. By then they'd made it to the edge of Nevada. I definitely wasn't going to tail them all the way back to New York. They could easily fend for themselves. Tailing them to California was just a precaution. They were dealing with something powerful enough to capture a goddess and venturing very far west (the further west you go, the denser the monster population. Case and point: manticore).

The reason I kept following them was because I was curious about Zoë Nightshade. The huntress had a certain strength and nobility about her that made me think that she could be a good ally. I waited for my opportunity to talk to her and it arose when the other two hunters slept and she took first guard. She sat on a chair facing the campfire and kept it stoked while I took a seat opposite her and took off my invisibility cap, face mask, and hood.

She noticed me instantly and jumped up and unsheathed a knife from her boot.

"I killed a manticore and a goddess and also defeated a titan in fair combat," I said. "No offense, but what can you do to me with that?"

She kept the knife in hand but stood still, a look of pure loathing and anger covering her face.

"I don't believe you're my enemy," I said. "I have no intention of hurting you. I'd just like to talk."

"And why should I speak with thee?" she said venomously.

"I'm not going to force you to talk. But you can't help but listen."

Reluctantly she sat back in her chair but kept the knife in hand.

"I'm sorry for your loss," I said.

"Thou're the one that killed her!" she spat.

"I'm not sorry that I killed Artemis. But I am sorry you had to lose someone."

Her expression wavered ever so slightly.

"I'm not evil, even if you think I am," I continued. "Artemis was. The gods are. It would take far too long to list the reasons why your mistress deserved what she got."

She said nothing in her disbelief.

"How long have you served beside Artemis?" I asked.

"Why should thee care?"

I waited.

"Two thousand years," she relented.

That surprised me, but made sense. "How many hunters have you seen die for Artemis in that time? I can tell you that most of them did not join the hunt willingly. They were brainwashed and abducted from happy lives to serve her. There are likely quite a few waiting back at Camp Half-Blood that still have loving mothers and fathers out there in the world mourning them. Or the parents are in the ground by your goddess's hand."

"Lies," she spat.

"It's Artemis that's fed you constant lies over the past two millennia. You don't have to believe me. But do you believe I kill without reason? The gods are the ones who kill without reason. I'm the only person in history with the ability to end a god's life. It's no accident that I have that power. It's my job to right the wrongs in the world. Artemis was part of it. Was."

I let her sit on the information for a bit.

"What was your prophecy?" I asked curiously.

She hesitated. "What does it matter? In the end it was a lie."

I stared expectantly.

She sighed and began to recite the prophecy.

"'Three servants take to Tamalpais, to save their maiden,

Unearning ears, you must take caution,

With thy father you have a reunion,

By a prick fall victim to the Underworld's slumbering concoction.'"

"I'm sorry I made your trip a useless endeavor," I said. "I assume you're not used to failing your missions."

She was silent. Her anger, while likely still present, no longer showed on her face. Instead I saw doubt, even though she still didn't believe me yet.

"If you even have the slightest chance of believing the information I've given you, you won't say anything about the gods' tyranny to anyone else. Anyone else. And it's in your best interest the gods don't doubt they have your allegiance. Just keep your eyes open. The gods aren't who you think they are. You'll be able to see it if you're looking for it."

I stood and put my hood and mask on.

"You have a choice to make," I said. "Believe in the immortal, untouchable beings that rule the Earth without question, or believe that the current state of the world isn't the best there is, and that there's something to be done about it." I paused. "This is not the last time we'll speak."

And then I was gone.

* * *

I fell into the Underworld once again, but only for a moment. I still had things to do on the surface, but I just needed to get out of the ridiculous outfit Hades had given me and return to wearing normal-person clothes. Once back in the palace I bumped into Hades for a moment and told him what had happened so far and that I was off to face Apollo. Then I changed and returned to the surface.

I'd shadow traveled to exactly where Apollo knew he'd find me: on a beach on the coast of New Jersey. It was the closest land point to where there was a recently sunken cruise ship, of which two gods were to be held responsible.

It was still pretty late at night so the beach was empty. I figured I still had a couple of hours before the sun came up so I occupied my time by drawing a message for Apollo in the sand, to help make sure he saw me. I wasn't the greatest artist, but I did the best I could. It was a simple cartoon man with his back visible and his pants pulled down You could say he was 'mooning' the sky. Underneath it a message read, 'First the moon, and soon the sun. This is a morning for vengeance. -Percy'.

Then I sat and waited, meanwhile entertaining myself by practicing water manipulation, a skill I'd rather neglected, which was ironic for a son of the sea god.

Over the horizon I could finally see the sky's darkness begin to fade. In the final stretch to my battle with Apollo I chewed and swallowed the rest of a small cube of ambrosia, which is what I'd been living on for the past week or so because it was small and contained a lot of calories. Hades also happened to have a large supply of it. One cube a day was enough to keep me full. Two weeks worth can easily fit in my pockets.

I finally spotted the tip of the sun appear above the ocean, and along with it a tiny speck in the sky that was rapidly growing. I calmly got to my feet and took two steps to my left. The speck turned into an arrow and lodged itself into the sand where I'd been sitting two seconds previously. Etched into the shaft was a very violent message that I choose not to repeat.

I tugged the arrow from the ground and threw it in an arc. Instead of hitting the ground, it landed in the quiver of the sun god himself, who'd just appeared. Even I had to admit that was pretty smooth.

"How was the cruise?" I asked.

"What have you done?" he yelled.

"Lots of things," I said. "Most recently I taunted you with a message and risque cartoon drawing. And before that I killed your sister. And quite a while before that I was too late to stop you from killing a ship full of mortals, something I won't ever have to do again once your head rolls."

Expectantly he quickly launched many arrows at me, all of which I easily dodged in time thanks to my newfound agility. I shadow traveled away and turned my watch into a shield, something I've been waiting to use practically for a while now.

Then I strategically chose points at which to summon skeletal warriors to distract the god, then lit a couple of them on fire because I wanted to see how both they and Apollo would react, and I thought it'd be funny. Needless to say the ones on fire were weaker and fell easier than the others, so it was a failed experiment.

After about three seconds Apollo had already shot every one of my skeletons to pieces, so I jumped in myself. I shadow traveled behind him and thrusted my trident, but he quickly turned and used his bow to block my attack. Then I struck again, and he blocked again, but this time the bowstring snapped and recoiled into my face, leaving a minor cut, but I ignored the sting.

He retreated several steps and dropped his bow and then pulled a celestial bronze sword out of nowhere. It looked to be celestial bronze with a hilt that had interesting patterns on it. Patterns that looked familiar. to me for some reason.

After a moment the realization came to me. It was Riptide. He was wielding the sword the Fates had taunted me with back at Yancy Academy.

"You recognize this, don't you?" Apollo said. "This sword was your destiny. Your path was lined out for you. Glory was guaranteed! It was in your prophecy. But you threw it all away."

"I don't care about glory," I said. "And I write my own prophecies."

I gave Krinos a twirl then closed the distance and our dance ensued.

We were pretty evenly matched. Every move he made I countered. Every move I made he only just barely countered. I felt unstoppable. I felt the adrenaline pumping through my veins. There was no way I could lose this fight.

But then he struck a blow. He got my guard up high and then cut a gash on my lower right leg and I immediately dropped to my knees. I let out an involuntary grunt/scream of agony. It was the most intense pain I'd ever felt. It was like the blade lit my blood on fire. I quickly shadow traveled away. I was so hasty to get away from the god that I came out about thirty feet offshore. The water definitely helped to ease the pain, but it was still unbearable. I shadow traveled again, this time on land.

Apollo was wasting no time advancing toward me. At the rate he was moving I had about ten seconds to recover.

I brought my left hand down to my leg and summoned as much strength as I could to concentrate on healing the wound. I wasted several seconds being in shock about the fact that my leg wasn't oozing blood, but instead some kind of black tar.

"Ooh!" said Apollo. "That looks like it stings. You wouldn't believe the power a failed prophecy has. I don't think this sword likes you all that much."

I healed my injury just in time to block an attack. Then I countered and our battle was back on. I was much more cautious this time. I didn't want to be hit by that sword again because I knew it could kill me — and by that I mean it could kill me a lot easier than any other sword could. I focused on being more defensive. Instead of trying to land my own attacks, I just blocked and waited for an opening for a critical blow.

And I eventually found it, and didn't hesitate to make my move. Using the blunt end of my trident I did a twirl to block a downward swipe from Apollo and maintaining the momentum of the twirl I immediately cut a deep gash into his sword-wielding wrist with the razor sharp prongs of Krinos. He dropped Riptide. Still working off of the twirl's momentum I aimed a blunt attack to his head which he blocked with his other arm. Then I completed the combo with a forward thrust into his chest.

The god fell and soon became nothing. I leaned down toward the sword that had nearly been my downfall and stopped myself from grabbing the hilt. After a moment of contemplating if even holding it could hurt me, it disappeared in a flash of light. I returned to the Underworld to claim what I believed to be well earned sleep.

* * *

I awoke what Hades said to be thirteen days later, which shouldn't be surprising considering how much magic I'd used and how long I'd stayed awake. As I stood and got dressed I noticed a bit of tension where Riptide cut me. The wound was healed but it left behind a scar, and it still felt tender.

Upon entering the main hall I requested food from Hades and wolfed it down. As godly as ambrosia tastes, it's still nice to treat your taste buds to some variety. Upon finishing my food, I jumped up to the surface, grabbed Annabeth, and returned to discuss my successful endeavor.

"Artemis and Apollo are both dead," I said, crossing off the names in my notebook and writing them back down on the 'dead' list. "You know this notebook is really unsatisfying. A board with pictures of all the gods' faces and red string and stuff where we can put red X's over the dead ones sounds much more appealing."

"Is that really what you want?" asked Hades.

"I mean, I'm just saying it'd be cool. We don't really have to waste our time with it though."

"So both Artemis and Apollo are dead?" Annabeth asked. "The hunters returned a while ago saying they saw you kill Artemis. Camp has heard nothing about Apollo."

"Yes," I confirmed. "They're both gone. And sorry it took until now for me to inform you about this. I fell asleep as soon as I'd finished my task and just woke up."

"How long have you been asleep?" she asked.

"Thirteen days," Hades informed.

She had a shocked expression, but didn't say anything.

"Anyway," I said. "Back to business. Apollo and Artemis are gone. At the top of the list is. . ." I hesitated for just a second and glanced at Annabeth. "Athena."

When we wrote the lists we discussed in depth about whether Athena should remain alive for a while due to her rivalry with Poseidon, but in the end we decided that her intelligence would harm us more than she and Poseidon would harm them.

Annabeth averted her gaze. I recognized the look on her face. She was feeling a tiny bit conflicted, but mostly angry and doing her best to hide her emotions.

"We should hold off on killing any more gods until the Titan War is over," Hades suggested.

"You're right," I agreed. "So we're basically just sitting tight for however many years this war lasts."

"I've been waiting for this war of ours for millennia," said Hades. "Patience has become something I'm very good at. I suggest you practice it as well."

"I was just awake for over a week with not much to entertain myself with," I said. "I think I already know a thing or two about patience."

"Perhaps."

There was a pause.

"What's next to talk about?" Annabeth asked, breaking the silence.

"Apollo wounded me," I said after thinking for a moment. "Bad."

"How so?" said Annabeth.

"He had a sword. Riptide."

"Anaklusmos," said Hades.

"You know about it?" I said.

"Yes. That was the one in the little game of fate you played."

"What's he talking about?" Annabeth asked.

"Right," I said. "You wouldn't know about that. Before I learned I was a demigod or got Krinos, I kept getting swept into these visions while I was at school. I was put into this black void where the only thing I could see was a sword called Anaklusmos, or Riptide in English. Each time I returned to the hallway, I got a little bit closer to it. When I was finally close enough to grab it, one of the furies was about to kill me."

"You tried to kill him?" Annabeth asked Hades.

"Alecto was sent as a scout by me," Hades said. "That was all. But I assume one of the Fates got to her and ordered her to kill Percy, or at least attempt to."

"I was supposed to grab Riptide and use it to kill Alecto, then the sword would bind me to whatever prophecy was laid out for me and I'd just be a normal demigod doing the gods' bidding. But I found a loophole. I found Krinos, and instead used it to kill her. So I never touched Riptide. But Apollo had it when I killed him. He got a hit off on me and when it struck it was the worst pain I'd ever felt. And instead of bleeding this black liquid came out. I was able to heal it, but there's a scar now, and my skin is sensitive there now. It's like the sword was cursed or something."

"I can probably explain this one," Hades said.

"How?" asked Annabeth.

"That game the Fates created was a very powerful thing. They likely knew the Titan War was coming and needed a champion to end it. Naturally they chose the only living son of Poseidon, Zeus, or myself, ignoring Nico and Bianca due to their inaccessibility. They pulled out all the stops to get you to grab that sword. It severely weakened them. That's probably the only reason you were able to kill Atropos in the first place."

"Apollo did say Atropos was weak," Annabeth supplied. "On the boat."

"Right," Hades continued. "They usually aren't. Even Zeus fears them."

"But why did the sword have such an effect on me?" I asked. "After he hit me Apollo said, 'you won't believe the power a failed prophecy has.'"

"He's not wrong," said Hades. "All that energy channeled into that game by the Fates was wasted when you never grabbed the sword. It had to go somewhere. I assume it imbued itself into the sword, making it far more powerful against the person who ruined their planned prophecy."

"Well we need to get that sword out of enemy hands then," I said. "That thing could be my greatest weakness."

"Not could be," said Hades. "Is. What happened to the sword after you killed Apollo?"

"I just stopped myself from picking it up because I wasn't sure if even grabbing the handle would be bad for me, and then it just vanished."

"Well you were probably right not to grab it, and the Fates likely recalled it to them after they felt Apollo's death."

"Ready to lend it to the next god Percy faces, I'm guessing," said Annabeth.

"This is all the more reason for Percy to become stronger," said Hades. "If Krinos is the only thing that touches the sword he won't have a problem. But next time you encounter it, I would not try to pick it up, even with the gauntlet. If we want that sword out of the Fates' possession we'll need to send demigods to grab it."

"So me," said Annabeth.

"And Nico and Bianca," I said. "Speaking of, where exactly are we on filling them in and getting them on our side?"

Hades looked hesitant. "I've spoken with them in secret a couple of times. I didn't tell them anything. I just wanted to gain their trust, be a father. When an event occurs that we'll need their help, I'll get them on our side. Only if it's necessary."

"Look," I said. "I get that you want to keep your children away from danger but it's not like I can't go with them to get the sword as long as it's someone else that picks it up."

"I'm not so sure that's true."

"What do you mean?"

"Well the Fates are very intelligent and very devious. Trust me, I think I've grown to know them pretty well in the time we've tolerated each other. When an eventuality shows up where the sword will be available for retrieval, they'll have gone to great lengths to make sure you're occupied elsewhere."

"So it'll be me and the Di Angelos alone," said Annabeth.

"There's still plenty of time to get more demigods on our side," I said.

"Any ideas as to whom?" she asked.

"Zoë Nightshade," I suggested.

"Artemis's lieutenant? What makes you think she'd join us after watching you kill her maiden?"

"I talked to her," I said. "Not enough for her to admit I'm not her enemy or anything, but she talked. And that was enough for me learn what I needed to know about her. She also said that she's been alive for over two thousand years."

"Two thousand? Wow. I never knew. But what does that have to do with her loyalty?"

"Daedalus once said to me that you find it hard not to question those who hold all the power when you get to live as long as he does."

"That makes sense on paper," she said. "But what about Chiron?"

"The centaur either sees what's wrong with the gods and chooses to ignore it," said Hades, "or he doesn't see it because he strives not to. All he cares about is the safety of demigods. He can't personally do anything to oppose the gods so he doesn't want to. But he can train demigods so they don't get killed doing the gods' bidding."

"Right," I said. "I want Zoë on our side. I'll find the right time to talk to her again and slowly I'll get her to lean away from the gods and toward us. And I suggest you talk to her too, Annabeth. Don't say anything about being affiliated with me to her. Just be subtle and learn what you can."

"Alright," she said, aiming her eyes at the table. I couldn't read her face.

"Speaking of which. Did she ever say anything about talking to me when she returned to camp?"

"Uh, no. Not that I recall."

"Good," I said with a smile. "That means I did get through to her somewhat. I told her it was in her best interest if no one knew we talked."

"Can we change the subject?" Annabeth said.

I stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Sorry," she said hurriedly. "I just meant we've said all there is on the matter. I meant to say, 'what's next to talk about?'"

I looked at Hades who had his eyes on Annabeth with an expression I couldn't identify then turned to me with a curious look.

"I don't think there is," I said, still confused by Annabeth's sudden outburst.

"You're right," Hades said, turning my attention towards him. "I think this meeting is concluded."

"I should probably get back to camp before someone notices I'm missing anyway," said Annabeth, still not meeting my eyes.

"Yeah, alright," I said.

After shadow traveling Annabeth back to Camp Half-Blood I met Hades in the palace courtyard.

"Shall we train?" Hades asked.

"Yeah," I said. "But first, give me a bow. I just killed two gods of archery. I've got to have pinpoint accuracy by now, right?"

"Perhaps you'd like to peruse the armory?" he suggested.

"We have an armory?" I said.

"Of course we do. You just don't know about it because the only weapon you've needed is always at your back."

"Huh," I said. "Never thought about that. Well, let's take a look."

Hades had quite a few toys to play with. His arsenal was four times the size of Camp Half-Blood's. Of course, the majority of it was melee weapons and shields. The rest was half armor and half ranged weaponry. I already had a melee weapon and a shield, so I didn't care about any of that. Armor would just slow me down, plus my jacket is pretty thick. The ranged weaponry is the reason I went there in the first place, and ended up being the only thing I cared about in there. I grabbed a few different weapons and brought them to the courtyard to try them out.

First off was simply a bow and arrow. I nocked an arrow and suddenly everything I looked at was a target, and I knew exactly where I had to aim to hit it. Obviously, I aimed for the actual target and let the arrow fly. It hit dead center. I nocked another and hit the target in the bullseye again, so close to the previous arrow the two looked connected. Then I did a few more in quick succession.

Hades just watched in fascination.

"Let's try an airborne target," I suggested then turned my gaze back toward the direction of the target and waited.

He threw a clay disk into the air and I shot it. He threw another and I shot it as well. We repeated that a couple of times and I nocked four arrows at once and asked Hades to throw four at a time. When they entered my sight my hands went into autopilot. I tilted the bow at the perfect angle and spaced the arrows according to what I saw then aimed below the disks and let loose at just the right time and each arrow hit their marks.

"Woo!" I yelled in my excitement and adrenaline pumping through me. "What a rush. That was awesome!"

"Indeed," Hades agreed.

Then I moved on to the rest of the weapons. There was the crossbow, which was a bit tougher to load but still manageable, and it also had the disadvantage of only being able to fire one bolt at a time. There was the blowpipe which I successfully used on the hunters (which I now realize wasn't an accomplishment because they'd known I was going to hit them and taken an antidote in advance, as well as taking the hits on purpose). Then there were a few guns, each one very unique in their own ways. They weren't your typical firearms, though. I knew nothing about guns but after firing these I knew mortals were terrible at making them.

According to Hades they all worked on steam, which somehow was being made within the weapons themselves by silently drawing in water vapor from the air. I hadn't the slightest clue how it all works.

The first one I tried was very sleek and thin. It fired these thick needles about three inches long. This one isn't as powerful as the others but it's easy to carry and conceal and fired silently, which made it good for stealth should the need ever arise.

The second gun was quite a bit larger than the first. It weighed about thirty pounds and shot very thick bullets. If this shot your leg, it'd tear your leg off. If it shot your torso, it'd tear your you off.

The third gun didn't really look like a gun. It was basically just a large rectangle and on top of it was a screen. It fired small homing bullets that created small explosions on impact. It doesn't take much effort to use. I'd have been able to perfectly hit whatever I wanted with it before I'd killed the archery twins. It does the work for you.

The last weapon was closer to a normal gun. It had a scope and fired bullets at rapid fire and was pretty loud. I actually wasn't sure how this was different from a mortal automatic rifle, but I'm sure it had its improvements.

The verdict? The bow seems like an obvious choice, but the arrows don't really stick to the quiver so it'd be hard to maneuver without them flying out onto the ground. Plus, however accurate I was didn't make me efficient and comfortable at using it. The crossbow was too slow to use effectively. The blowpipe wouldn't have any effect on gods, even if the darts were made from celestial bronze. Most of the guns weren't very practical as they were either too heavy or required very specific situations for them to be better to use than my trident.

The weapon I did decide to keep in the end was the first gun I tried: the needle gun. It was small and concealable, so I didn't have to worry about it burdening me too much. It could fire a lot of shots in quick succession. The needles were made of celestial bronze and could easily wound a god, and were stored in these thick tubes/canisters that acted as the magazine, so extra ammo was easy to carry and load into the gun. There was also the advantage of being able to use it one handed, which meant I could still be parrying/attacking with my trident at the same time. Finally, it felt natural to use and comfortable in my hand.

After putting the rest of the weapons away I played around with the needle gun some more then started training. And so resumed my long monotony.

* * *

After the deaths of the twins the next significant event occurred a year and a half later. This one was almost not worth mentioning because Annabeth and Hades spent a great deal of time convincing me to sit this one out. The idea was to make me see that the demigods are strong enough to handle themselves on their own. There's going to be a time when I'm not able to keep the demigods safe and this was supposed to prepare me for it.

The event was the Battle of the Labyrinth, and four demigods were seriously injured. The only reason they're still alive is because I didn't listen to my friends.

I should start from the beginning. Luke had been causing a bit of trouble here and there and for a while it was unclear why. That is until Daedalus tracked me down and informed me that Ariadne's string was stolen. It wasn't hard from that point to put together that Luke wanted to navigate the Labyrinth to the titans' advantage.

After that we found a way to inform the camp of what had happened without raising any suspicions. So the campers met and discussed the issue and decided to wait until something further happened.

Something did eventually happen when one of the campers "accidentally" discovered an opening to the Labyrinth within camp, thanks to Daedalus. After that the camp decided on three people to send into the Labyrinth to try and find a way to navigate it and try and somehow find a way to stop Luke from doing so.

Their mission was a failure. Daedalus was the sole reason those demigods didn't get lost permanently or killed by a trap. He managed to keep them from harm and guide them back out of the maze and into camp without being detected by them. After that the camp had no other options but to put sentries at the entrance around the clock so they'd be ready when Luke and his allies came through, which they of course eventually did.

Hundreds of monsters poured out of the entrance and attacked the campers standing guard in the dead of night. Soon after, the rest of the camp woke up and joined the battle. They nearly fended them off, but not quite. It was after one camper suffered a serious blow that I stepped in.

I was already at camp when the invasion had started. It was around an hour after the sun went down, which is typically the time I'd be at camp with my invisibility cap on, just watching from a distance. Anything to get me out of the Underworld every once in a while, and anything to keep me tied to the world outside our war.

So after I realized the demigods were losing the battle, I held nothing back. Still with my invisibility cap on I hopped into the middle of the fray and just slashed and stabbed and did everything that came naturally, including shooting my newly improved needle gun (thanks to Daedalus. According to him it was almost as worthless as mortal guns and whatever demigod or god made it should be ashamed of their skills as an inventor) very often. I killed so many monsters that I couldn't determine a single thing I'd absorbed from them. I assumed at that point that all I got was faster and stronger.

When the dust cleared, the campers were victorious and the monsters were gone. I found Daedalus later after making sure everyone, especially Annabeth, was okay. He told me he'd designed a grenade that could destroy an entrance into the Labyrinth permanently, and threw it in during the chaos. He explained the reason he hadn't done it before was because he hadn't had the resource to make it possible, but that resource happened to be a part of a certain monster that was slain in the battle.

The next meeting between Hades, Annabeth, and I included a pretty loud outburst from myself. I'm partially ashamed of how aggressive I was, but I still believe everything I said. The basic gist of it was that demigods could have died, they gave me terrible advice by telling me to stay out of it, and as long as I am even slightly capable to do something any deaths or injuries suffered by demigods are my fault and that I'll never just 'sit one out' again if I can help it. I shouted a few other things, but I'll leave those out.

* * *

Two more things of note occurred after that: my encounter with Prometheus and then my fight with Hyperion.

Under a year and a half after the Battle of the Labyrinth Typhon, the super powerful monster that is known as the father of all monsters, awoke from his slumber and began marching from Mount Saint Helens to New York, or better put, Olympus. Seeing how Typhon is the greatest foe the gods have ever faced, all ten remaining Olympians were completely occupied fighting him.

And the titans began to capitalize on their absence. Prometheus, A.K.A. the titan that sided with the gods in the first titan war and is now siding with his brethren, appeared in Central Park and started a massive fire. After discussing the matter with Hades and Annabeth we decided I should stop Prometheus to help ensure the titans' defeat while the gods were occupied. So I went to Central Park and tracked down Prometheus, but it wasn't exactly difficult to do.

"There he is!" said Prometheus. "The mysterious demigod I've heard so much about. I was hoping we'd have a chance to meet."

"What are you doing?" I asked. All the trees were burning, flames licked across the grass and any benches there were were destroyed by the fire. The only area the fire didn't reach was a twenty foot radius around the titan, which I was within.

"I gifted humans fire," he said. "Much to Zeus's dismay. I also created humans. They were the perfect creatures, but Zeus was afraid of them, so he destroyed them, only for them to be recreated later in a far weaker variant. While seven billion of you roam the planet with intelligence far superior to what any deity expected of you, you are all massive disappointments. Well, except for the demigods but only thanks to the power the gods allowed them to have."

"So is that what this is?" I asked, indicating the fire. "Punishment to humanity for being weak?"

"Partially," he said. "But I mainly wanted to get your attention."

"Why?"

"I have a proposition. Somehow you have the ability to kill gods."

"Titans too."

He chuckled. "But you are not a god. You're still human, with human weaknesses."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to do me a favor."

"Why would I do that?"

"Your father and I struck a deal. I believe we can too."

"You struck a deal with Poseidon?"

"Oh yes. When Typhon arose it became apparent that they couldn't win because they're missing two of their members. Poseidon needed to join the fray but he had a bit of a predicament. He's the ruler of the seas. But Oceanus was the ruler of the seas, and wants to reclaim his throne. So I solved his predicament for him. I got Oceanus to back off for a while, Poseidon gets to go fight Typhon, and I get his son."

"Me?"

"In a way, but no. Triton. Poseidon handed me captivity of his son, Triton."

"Why would you want Triton?"

"Leverage of course. It's to my understanding that you have a vendetta against all the gods, Triton included. But if I give him over to Oceanus who will throw him into Tartarus, you don't get to kill him."

"I don't think you realize that I don't care whether he dies or goes to Tartarus. Either way is punishment enough in my book."

"I did consider that a possibility. But I don't think you realize that with Poseidon gone, Amphitrite has free reign over everything in his kingdom, including his prisoners. And there's one particular woman that she doesn't like very much."

My heart sank when I realized what he is implying.

"Now while I doubt Amphitrite will kill your mother, torture is something she'd be very pleased to do to a woman her husband deemed fairer than her."

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"I want you to kill Poseidon and Amphitrite."

"What? Why?"

"Well because then Oceanus gets control of the seas and will then owe me a huge debt. And you will get both your mother's freedom and the pleasure of killing Triton."

"I fully intend on killing Poseidon and Amphitrite," I said. "But in my own time, and not on your demands."

"Well I guess that's too bad then," he said. "You kill them both in a week or else Triton goes to Tartarus and your mother goes to the Underworld."

I could hear sirens in the distance now. The firefighters were extinguishing the flame.

I took several steps forward and summoned Krinos. Prometheus retreated one step.

"There's one problem with your plan though," I said, calling his bluff. "I'm friends with the god of the Underworld."

I felt a tug in my gut as he tried to flee but I pulled back on it, keeping him here and swiped at him but he dodged to the side. I pulled out my needle gun and shot him four times in his left leg and twice in his right, then stabbed him.

"Too bad you're not a titan of combat," I said as his consciousness faded and body began to wither away.

* * *

And finally it's one year later, totaling four years since Poseidon captured my mom. Over the last year Typhon was defeated, Oceanus resumed his war with Poseidon, a lot more minor gods sided with the Titans, and quite a few more demigods joined Luke as well. And Kronos apparently was resurrected too, somehow.

In the final stretch of the war tensions ran high and the amount of time spent with neither side making a move brought nothing but anxiety upon Camp Half-Blood. Everyone was just waiting for something to happen.

Then it did, in the form of a titan named Hyperion. One day I was talking to Annabeth when a giant ball of fire fell from the sky and landed on the central hearth between all the cabins. When the dust cleared, most of the cabins had taken some minor damage and there was a small crater with a man inside wearing a full suit of armor. His eyes were alight with flames just like Hestia's and his skin was very dark, like it was burnt.

"The day of reckoning is upon you!" he yelled in a deep voice the echoed and crackled.

I didn't hesitate to step out of hiding and show myself to the titan.

"A challenger!" Hyperion said. "Are you so eager to die?"

I summoned Krinos.

"You're different," he said. "You're not like the other demigods. You. . . You're the rogue son of Poseidon. The one that can kill gods."

"And I can kill you too," I said.

"We'll see about that."

From his back he unsheathed a massive flaming great sword and flew through the air at me. I had no choice but to run to avoid being hit by him. At his velocity combined with the weight of the sword, attempting to block would have been devastating to me.

As his sword struck the ground where I was standing a second ago I attempted to counterattack but he twirled inhumanly fast and blocked my blow, sending me flying at the same time. I rolled over and any hope of getting a second to recover left my mind when I saw him already speeding toward me again. The only way I was able to move out of the way fast enough was by shadow traveling.

I summoned skeletal warriors hoping for them to distract them long enough for me to land a hit but his skin turned to flame and my undead minions shattered when they got too close to him.

He was too fast and too powerful. I couldn't beat him. My only hope was to lead him near water so I could use that against him. So I turned and ran, knowing he was following me. As I ran through the camp I saw demigods run in every direction, some of them frozen in terror, others looking like they were trying to collect weapons to try and defend the camp. But every single one that saw me I knew recognized me.

The nearest water source I knew of was in the forest in the form of a river where the campers played capture the flag. But I couldn't go through there because Hyperion would just light the trees on fire and that'd be a disaster. So my only choice was to head to the beach.

I ran past the cabins and the ocean was in sight, but it didn't matter. I collapsed to the ground and groaned and clutched my leg in pain, staring at the two arrows that impaled me there. Hyperion slowly walked to me, laughing, dragging his sword alongside him, leaving a trail of fire. Behind him I saw the Apollo campers that shot me, still firing arrows, all of them aimed at Hyperion but they all just bounced off his armor.

"You risk your life for them and this is how they repay you?" Hyperion said, still laughing.

I used my hands and good leg to push myself backward, hoping to get close to the water.

"What a fitting end," he said. "I heard you're the one that put Atlas back in his place. I thought I'd have a harder time killing you."

He raised his sword and slowly took the final two steps toward me.

I tried to shadow travel away but I was too weak. I'd lost too much blood already. I turned and saw the water, a hundred feet from me. In a last desperate attempt I pulled on it, bringing it toward me but it was too far away, and I was too slow.

The last thing I heard was Hyperion's laughter as his sword struck me, killing me.


	9. Isolation

**A/N: Chapters 9-13 explore a side arc that I wrote in in order to achieve some important character building for Percy as well as some catch up from the time-skip. These chapters explore original content that draws zero inspiration from Rick Riordan's main works or Greek mythology, and I understand that might deter some people away even though I stand by my decision to include it. If you stick through these chapters, the tone of the story will go back to where it was prior to this story arc. These chapters contain important information and growth for Percy, so I didn't just throw in a pointless side arc that has nothing to do with the overall plot. I'm writing this author's note a while after I wrote the last chapter and of course have my regrets about some of my writing choices, but this is not one of them. I could have executed it better and made it tie in more with the style of the original books, but I chose my own writing style and have no regrets about that.**

* * *

I awoke in a room with no doors and no windows. I estimated it was about eight feet in length, width, and height; just barely enough room to lie down but not even enough room to pace back and forth. My back was against the wall. There was nothing in the room but me, not even a light source. Despite that I could still see. The walls were a greenish gray. I looked down at myself and saw I was wearing thin, loose clothing bearing the color and texture of a potato sack.

I patted my torso with my hands, where the sword had struck me. I was expecting pain, maybe blood. I felt nothing. It felt like I'd never been struck by a massive flaming sword that probably weighed a few hundred pounds.

Where am I? Is this the Underworld? I'm dead. I died. So why can I still feel my heart beating in my chest? Why can I taste the oxygen I'm somehow breathing in this presumably non-ventilated box? Is this my own room in the Fields of Punishment? Is this my hell? Is this what I deserve for opposing the gods?

I got to my feet and felt my weight being pulled down by gravity. I ran my hands across the wall, feeling its smooth, cold surface on my skin.

Hyperion killed me. I failed in every possible sense. I was supposed to protect Camp Half-Blood. I was supposed to kill all the gods. I was supposed to save my mother. And now I can't. Hyperion took that from me, because I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't fast enough. How did he move so fast?

The titan of fire, the sun, light. . . Light. He's the titan of light. Light can move faster than anything else in existence. That's why I couldn't beat him. But how can the demigods beat him? I left them at his mercy. Are they going to die too? Is he going to slaughter them all? Did I die for nothing?

His laughter is still in my head. Why does it have to be so quiet in here? It only amplifies the sound of my own thoughts and the sound of his laughter and the sound of his echoey, crackling voice.

Not wanting to sit still anymore, I tried pacing in my tiny prison. But then I noticed something. On the wall behind me that I had been leaning against there was a black trident painted on the wall, just shorter than me. I touched it but nothing happened. But it reminded me of my own faithful trident: Krinos.

I tried to summon it but nothing happened. Krinos was gone. I didn't have it anymore. Krinos is still out there, in the real world with my corpse. And I'm in here. Alone with my thoughts. Alone with my memories as seconds passed, then minutes, then hours.

* * *

 _I was sweating profusely. My heart was pumping and my veins pulsed with adrenaline. Krinos in hand I twirled and pushed as hard as I could just to be knocked to the ground by Hades once again._

 _"Again!" I said, getting to my feet._

 _"Perhaps we should take a break," said Hades._

 _"No. I want to go again."_

 _"Percy," Annabeth said. "Take a break."_

 _Sometimes Annabeth trained with Hades and I. She wielded her dagger pretty well, but just like me she still needed a lot of improvement._

 _For a moment I stood in stance with my trident in hand, but noticed Hades no longer held his bident. Reluctantly, I dismissed Krinos and walked over to the bench at the edge of the palace courtyard where Annabeth sat and watched._

 _"I beat Atlas," I said, frustrated. "Why can't I beat him?"_

 _"You're in your head too much," said Hades. "Your confidence is controlling you. All you're thinking is that you want to beat me, not how to. It's making you fight recklessly. You said killing the manticore made you faster, but you're not thinking faster. You need to see what's happening and act on it sooner."_

 _"I'm trying!" I yelled._

 _"Can we have a minute?" Annabeth said to Hades._

 _He nodded and walked into the castle._

 _"Is this about your mom?" she asked._

 _I looked at her, wondering how she could see through me so well. "Of course. I need to save her. But how can I possibly hope to face Poseidon if I can't win against Hades?"_

 _"You can defeat Poseidon, Percy," she said. "And you will."_

 _I sighed. "I just don't know what he's doing to her. I'm here, happy and healthy and she's probably going through hell right now and I'm powerless to do anything about it. Every second I sit down here feels like another second of — " I stopped talking. I couldn't bear to put into words what my mom could be going through.  
_

 _"I know that must be hard for you. But going into his home base without being ready to face him would just be suicide, and you dying is not going to help anyone. And she wouldn't want you to get yourself killed rescuing her."_

 _"I don't know how I'm going to get strong enough to kill him."_

 _"You will."_

 _"How?"_

 _"Not like this. Not by being angry with your current skill level. You need to be patient. You can't get better if your expectation is to become better over night."_

 _"You know," I said after a long pause. "You've never told me about your dad."_

 _She didn't look happy about the change of subject, but humored me anyway. "There's not much to tell. After he met my step-mother she became the most important thing to him instead of me. Then she got pregnant and gave birth to the twins. Then I was the fifth wheel. I was seven, and the fact that my father didn't pay attention to me anymore was too much to bear. So I ran away. That was when the monsters started coming after me, but luckily I met Luke and Thalia. They protected me. And Luke — he gave me this." She pulled out her dagger._

 _"Luke. . ." I said._

 _"There's still good in him, Percy. There has to be. It's Kronos. He's manipulating him"_

 _"Maybe," I said, only to comfort her. I put a reassuring hand on her shoulder._

 _I looked at her. Her eyes were on the ground. I could see her struggling to keep tears from falling down her face. Luke clearly meant a lot to her, and she's still in denial about the person Luke has become._

* * *

Annabeth. She was at camp when Hyperion attacked. Is she still alive? Or did I fail her too?

Maybe I do deserve this punishment. If Hyperion didn't stop at me, then Annabeth is dead because of me. An entire camp full of demigods could be dead because of me, because I couldn't help them.

And without the demigods, how can the gods possibly win the war? They'll have had to of lost. The titans will wipe the Earth clean of mortals. They'll rebuild their own empire. Was the fate of the entire world up to me? Did I fail everyone on Earth?

I deserve this. I deserve to be trapped in here for eternity.

* * *

 _"I've never told you about Maria, have I?" Hades said. It was just him and I, sitting in the main hall._

 _"No," I replied. "You've never been one to come out of your shell. She was Nico and Bianca's mother, right?"_

 _"Yes," he said, then sighed. "It was a difficult time. World War II was happening, causing the gods to disband and take their own sides. They all started fucking mortals left and right, trying to pump out as many demigods as possible. But it didn't matter. The war ended before any of them were old enough to make a difference. "_

 _"And you?"_

 _"I sat here. Alone. Persephone was by my side, yet I was still alone. Everyone around me wanted me to take their side, give them powerful demigods to fight for them. One day I just wanted to escape from it all, so I went far away from all the conflict. I found myself in Italy. I didn't really plan on going there, but my subconscious decided the destination. It didn't take long to find out why. I felt a warp in the mist. I followed it and it led me to her, to this beautiful woman. I was instantly enamored._

 _"When she saw me, she saw_ me _. The whole me. She knew I wasn't mortal. She was clear sighted. She could see through the mist. When she spoke there was this palpable charm to her. She had this innocent, bubbly personality; the complete opposite of myself. It was a welcome change in my rather bleak existence. I practically fell in love with her on the spot. We spoke for twenty minutes. I asked her what she most wanted to see, where she most wanted to go. She told me she wanted to see the Gorges du Verdon. She spent two minutes describing its beauty, and said it was word for word how her father described it to her when she was a child. He'd said it was the most beautiful place he'd ever been. All the time she was talking she had this gleam in her eye. So I took her there, immediately. We talked for hours, I would have spent an eternity with her, but I was only allowed five years._

 _"The Oracle spoke of a powerful demigod of either myself, Zeus, or Poseidon that would either save the world or destroy it. It wasn't a prophecy. It was a promise of one. When Zeus and Poseidon heard about it we all swore an oath on the Styx to have no more demigod children, and Zeus tried to kill Nico and Bianca I was in the hotel with them and Maria when a lightning bolt struck it, toppling the entire building to the ground. I was only able to save the kids in time. I wasn't fast enough to save her." His voice was thick with emotion. This had happened decades ago, yet it may as well have happened yesterday to him._

 _"Is that your main motivation for helping me?" I asked. "To get back at Zeus?"_

 _"I have many reasons to help you cross off every name in that book. But this is definitely one of them."_

 _"Why did you tell me this?"_

 _"It's been half a century and you're the first person I've trusted since her. I guess I finally just had to vent."_

 _"I'm sorry," I said. "What happened to her after she died?"_

 _"She went straight to Elysium," he said. "I spoke with her one last time, got closure for both of us. Then she rebirthed."_

 _"You will get justice," I promised. "She'll be avenged."_

 _"I know she will."_

* * *

This memory draws an interesting parallel to my current predicament. Hades wasn't fast enough to save the woman he loved. I wasn't fast enough to save myself or my camp.

The only difference is that I'm not in love with anyone. I can't allow myself to be. The same thing that happened to my mom will happen to any girl I allow to become an important part of my life. It just wouldn't be fair of me to put someone in that kind of danger. It wouldn't be fair for me to get attached.

* * *

 _Hades helped me track her down. With him being a god, it wasn't too difficult._

 _I found myself in a forest. The trees stood tall and dense, with almost an eerie silence to them. The wind made no noise. In the clearing I stood in the light of the moon danced off of a white tent. There was a faint smell of smoke in the air, coming from the recently put out fire pit._

 _Without taking any measures to muffle my steps, I walked toward the tent. A few seconds later, I was two feet from the entrance and the flap opened up with a bow and nocked arrow pointed at me. I calmly put my palms up and took a large step back. One second passed and the bow was lowered and a girl stepped out of the tent._

 _She wore simple night clothes over her copper colored skin. Her hair fell over her shoulders and looked a bit messy._

 _"Why are thou here?" Zoë Nightshade asked._

 _"Just thought I'd drop by," I responded._

 _"Why now? I was about to sleep." She looked very annoyed._

 _"Sorry," I said with a shrug. "I'm noticing a lack of hostility." This was the first time we'd spoken since our conversation after I killed Artemis, several weeks after the incident._

 _She sighed and walked past me. I turned and watched her sit in a chair facing the unlit campfire, about to relight it._

 _"Allow me," I said, igniting my left palm and taking a seat across from her. I tossed the flames in my hand at the fire pit._

 _"I spoke with some of the hunters after getting back to Camp Half-Blood," she said. "They informed me they were having flashes of lives they never lived. Parents they never knew. When I asked them about their joining the hunt, the story that had been embedded in their minds for so long seemed to fade, the ones about being wronged by men and finding Artemis who took them to a better life. They realized it wasn't true. They'd been abducted and brainwashed. What you said was true." The pain of betrayal was in her voice._

 _"So what'd you do then?" I asked._

 _"I told them to keep quiet. That I'd help them. In private I talked them through their panic. Together we found out as much as we could about the lives they'd had stolen from them. Then I tracked down their parents, at least as many as I could. Many of them didn't have parents anymore. They were either murdered by — by her — or died of natural causes a long time ago. Those who did have parents decided they wanted to be with them again and I helped them reunite. And the rest — they couldn't stand to stick around Camp Half-Blood either. Some just left on their own. The others I assisted in finding some place to go."_

 _"And the ones who joined Artemis willingly?"_

 _"They remained at camp, mourning her." She said that last word with hate practically dripping from her mouth._

 _"And what about you?"_

 _"I — I needed to get away. I couldn't stay in her cabin for longer than was necessary. I couldn't be around the hunters that still believed in Artemis. The guilt — it was just too much to bear."_

 _"Guilt?" I said bemusedly. "What could you possibly be guilty of? You're just as much the victim as they are."_

 _"For lying to them," she responded. "Allowing them to believe Artemis was as great as I'd once believed. For allowing them to mourn for her."_

 _"That is for their own benefit," I said. "What they don't know can't hurt them."_

 _"Fine. But I'm still guilty of being an idiot."_

 _"You're not an idiot."_

 _"Yes I am! Two thousand years. I gave her my undying loyalty for two thousand years. I never noticed a damned thing. I should have seen it sooner. I'd witnessed other gods do questionable things, but I told myself that as long as Artemis aligns herself with them then I should too."_

 _"You're comparing your mind to a goddess's. She was a goddess. She was a master of deception. You were her victim. She went to great lengths to make sure you and all the other hunters believed she was the perfect being. Or to believe that any part of her was human. You're not at fault."_

 _"That doesn't help me."_

 _"You're a good person!" I said exasperatedly. "You gave her your loyalty because she manipulated you into thinking she was a good person as well. Just look at what you did for all of those girls who Artemis captured."_

 _She didn't respond. After many seconds of silence, she spoke._

 _"Why me?" she asked._

 _"What?" I replied, confused._

 _"Why did thou reveal thyself to me? Why did thou unveil Artemis's lies to me, of all people? Of all the demigods at Camp Half-Blood, of the three hunters that went on that quest, why me?"_

 _Our eyes met. After Artemis died, the aura all of her hunters once had vanished. But Zoë's was still present in her dark brown eyes. Through them I could see her newfound bitterness and sadness, but also immense strength, keeping those first two things at bay. And right now, they had this innocent glimmer of curiosity to them._

 _"You're correct in saying that you're an idiot," I said, "if you truly believe you need to ask that question."_

 _"Was that an insult?_

 _"Of course not. I'm just wondering how after two thousand years you can have such a confused perception of your own self-worth."_

 _Her eyes darted to the ground and she shifted in her seat slightly._

 _"I really should be getting to sleep," she said._

 _"Of course," I responded after a couple seconds and got to my feet. "But don't you think it's a little dangerous, sleeping in the middle of the woods at night without anyone to stand guard?"_

 _"Thou didn't see the issue when thou shot me with a sleep dart," she countered, almost with a smirk, almost._

 _"Fair point," I said then made to leave._

 _"Perseus," she said, stopping me. "Thank you." She couldn't look at me as she said that. It was clear her bias against males was still present._

 _"For what?" I asked._

 _"Everything. Telling me the truth, talking to me — issuing justice to that treacherous witch."_

 _I gave a nod and smiled, then left._

* * *

Zoë and I spoke many times after that. We're friends now. I might just be her only friend, seeing how after four years she chooses to remain in isolation, on her own solo hunt. I'm the first male she's trusted, at least in a long time.

It's been great getting to know her. Learning about her life. Knowing how to make her smile and how to make her laugh. And now I don't know if I'll ever get to see her again.

Zoë was actually the first person to tell me my new name. After she and the other two hunters returned to camp from their quest, the gods' secret was out. The son of Poseidon can kill gods, and his true motivations were revealed: to kill all of them. After that she'd eventually said to me that the demigods began calling me Olympus's Assassin. Or sometime the Assassin of Olympus. But more often than not, I was just the Assassin.

While not the name I'd have chosen for myself, I had to accept it. The consensus had spoken. That's my new name, even though to myself and the people who knew me I'd always be Percy.

That's probably what they muttered to each other when I stood up to Hyperion. That's what they thought when they shot me in the leg. 'It's the Assassin! Shoot him!'

In whispers around camp I'd heard the word 'assassin' used, but I never heard enough of the conversations to know that referred to me, until Zoë told me. Before then I was just 'the boy with the white trident'. They couldn't dare to say my real name, although I do have to admit that that's fair. Names hold power.

I sat with my back facing the wall opposite the one with the black trident on it. It was the only thing with meaning in the room. I had to keep my eye on it, if not to see if anything would change then just so my eyes would have something to look at.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" I'd try to yell at it, but I'd hear nothing. There was no sound in this box whatsoever.

* * *

 _Zoë laughed. I'd just made a joke in response to something she'd said, and now I was just enjoying the look of bliss on her face. I always felt a bit of accomplishment every time I managed to make her laugh because of her usual serious and guarded demeanor. Even after she learned of Artemis's lies it took her a while to trust me and even longer to open up and admit I was her friend. Our eyes met for a second, but hers quickly darted to the ground. Slowly, the smile fell from her lips, and she wore a more serious expression._

 _"Perseus," she said. "I've had some thoughts bottled up for a while, and I need to say them before I change my mind again. So just listen for a minute, please."_

 _"Alright," I said. I began to feel nervous, having no idea what she was going to say.  
_

 _She took a deep sigh. "The last man I trusted was Heracles, so long ago. I've told you the story before. After what he did to me, I just couldn't bear to be around another man. My sisters outcast me, stripped me of my status as a Hesperide. When I found Artemis, she took me in and made me feel welcome and wanted. She said to join her hunt I had to take a vow of maidenhood, and to swear off men forever. I didn't hesitate. And after seeing so many other young girls join the hunt and tell their stories about the way males had wronged them, it became cemented in my head: men are evil. Of course I know now that that's a ridiculous generalization and just another lie Artemis forced me to believe, but I still found it hard to trust another male; to trust you. But I do. I do trust you." She paused. "As much as I once trusted Artemis."_

 _"What are you saying?" I asked._

 _"I'm saying that in some ways it feels like our friendship is too good to be true. And that something might happen to end it."_

 _"It's not. And it won't."_

 _"I know that. But please, just let me talk. I've been hurt twice now. I don't believe you will hurt me though. And I just feel like — "_

 _She stopped. Her cheeks turned pink and she wouldn't meet my eyes. Was she always this beautiful? I'd never let myself look at her like that for many reasons, but right now I couldn't help but admire her features.  
_

 _"I feel like this isn't all there is between us. What Heracles and I had was fake, at least for him. And I think that we could have something that isn't fake. I've been wanting to talk with thee about this for some time now, but I was afraid of what it might do to our friendship. But I needed to say it before it drove me mad." Her eyes met mine, and I could tell how extremely difficult this was for her to say. I could see her anxiety, and how worried she was about how I'd react._

 _Her face got closer to mine. I saw what she was trying to do and I panicked. I stood up._

 _"This — it ca — I — I'm sorry," I stuttered, then left, already mentally slapping myself for how poorly executed my reaction was.  
_

* * *

That was the last time we'd talked. It was two weeks ago; at last two weeks before I died. It's the longest I'd gone without seeing her. I couldn't face her after how I responded to her admitting her feelings. She took a risk in telling me how she felt and now she's likely furious with me.

I should have kissed her. I shouldn't have left.

Two weeks and all I could do was tell myself I did the right thing. I told myself that it wasn't fair to her that I allowed her to catch feelings for me. I spent the less than four years we knew each other preventing myself from feeling that way about her. I couldn't fall in love with her. Not when I'm up against Olympus. It'd put her in danger.

But now. . . Now I can't stop thinking about her. I can't say I hadn't thought about the possibility of us being more than friends in the past. I'd thought about it many times but I kept myself from thinking that that would ever be possible. I made sure I saw her only as a friend. But after she told me that she didn't see me as only a friend, I fell apart. I fell into the trap.

I should have kissed her.

Now I have to live in this box indefinitely knowing that I hurt her, right after she said she thought I never would. She told me what she feared would happen if she were to say what she did and I made her fears a reality. She's in her tent, alone, thinking I rejected her, thinking that I betrayed her like Artemis and Heracles did. She wanted to be with me, and now she thinks I don't want to be with her.

Perhaps a part of me thought that one day when all the gods faced justice I'd be allowed to have a relationship with a girl. Perhaps a tiny part of me believed it would be Zoë. I'd never given those thoughts the light of day because I believed that in order to accomplish my goals I had to remain in the present, away from fantasies that could or could not become a reality in the distant future.

"I should have kissed her," I whispered, but didn't hear my own voice. Maybe it started after she told me how she felt or maybe it started after I died, but feeling myself say those words made a thought in my mind louder than any other: I want to be with her.

I need to get out of here. I need to return to the real world. I need to tell her that — I don't even know what I'd tell her but I need to see her again. She needs to know I didn't abandon her. I need to come back to life.

I still feel my heart beating in my chest. I can still breathe. My blood still runs through my veins. I know I'm not dead permanently. I need to finish what I started. I can get back to Earth.

I sighed, all the excitement and determination that I just felt diminishing.

But how?

* * *

How long has it been? How long have I been in here? It's felt like an eternity. It doesn't help that I'm unable to sleep. As long as I've been here I've felt as awake as I've ever been. I can't escape this prison, literally not even in my dreams. And I couldn't count the days based on how many times I've slept.

I can still see their faces. The faces of the Apollo hunters that I saw right before I died. They killed me. If they hadn't shot me I could have made it to the beach. I could have used the water against Hyperion and killed him.

I immediately felt guilty for that thought. It wasn't fair. I'm becoming bitter. My death is no one's fault but my own. . . and Hyperion's. I wouldn't have made it to the beach anyway. He was too fast. He would have caught me. I could have shadow traveled, but for some reason I didn't think of it.

I need to get out of here. I may not have been able to save the camp from Hyperion, but I can still get stronger. I still have a lot of good to do. I can rectify my failure. I just need to figure out how to get —

The trident turned white. It used to be black, but now it's suddenly white, like Krinos.

I got to my feet and examined the paint more closely. The paint was cracked in lines all around the shaft. The cracks in the paint matched Krinos's blue lines perfectly.

Figuring I had nothing to lose, I tried to summon Krinos again, and it worked this time. It felt amazing to have my trident back in my hand, sleek and elegant as ever.

I reacted on instinct. Although I didn't have much room to maneuver, I gave it my best and struck the wall with the painted trident as hard as I could. Cracks spread across the wall lightning fast. I knew for sure I didn't hit it anywhere near hard enough for it to take that kind of damage. Then the cracks began to glow with a bright light, and shortly afterward the wall exploded away from me, and I could hear the fragments of stone (or whatever the wall was made of) collide in the air and hit the ground.

Cautiously, I stepped out of my prison onto very vibrant green grass. I looked around and saw a wide stretch of nothing but empty grassy plains as far as the eye could see. And the sky was a light gray.

"Where am I?" I said aloud, finally being able to hear the sound of my own voice again. I could tell I wasn't on Earth or in the Underworld.

"Well you're in the Outerlands, of course," a southern accent said.

In front of me was a man wearing bell bottom jeans with a very large belt buckle, a light brown leather vest over a white collared button up shirt, and a cowboy hat. I didn't see him until he spoke, somehow.

"Howdy," he said and held his hand out to me, a pleasant smile on his very chiseled face. "Nice to meet you, Percy."


	10. Purple

"Who are you?" I asked the man with the southern accent and cowboy attire.

"The name's Primor," he said, lowering his hand, realizing I wasn't going to shake it.

"What is this place? Why am I here?"

"I told you," said Primor. "This is the Outerlands. And you're here 'cause you died."

"But why am I not in the Underworld?"

He chuckled. "The Underworld? Heh. Is that where the dead go on your plane?"

"My plane?"

"Your world. Earth, I do believe. Am I wrong?"

"No, you're not wrong. I'm from Earth. Are you not?"

"No, silly. I'm from here. I'm a native of the Outerlands."

"You're a native of this place, where there's literally nothing anywhere?" I said, gesturing to the empty plains that surrounded us. I turned and there was no sign of the box I was trapped in. It disappeared. And in its place was more plains.

"Of course there is," said Primor. "You're just not looking close enough."

I tried to examine the emptiness more closely, and there was still nothing.

"Whatever," I said. "What was that box and why was I trapped in it for so long?"

"That was your penance," he answered. "You kept yourself trapped in there because you felt so damned guilty for whatever happened before you died. It took for you to forgive yourself for you to be able to get out."

"How do I get back home?"

"Well there's the question you should have asked first. You got to face your trials."

"My trials? What trials?"

"You see, this entire place exists outside your universe, or any universe. Time is different here. It still passes, but not in the way you're used to."

"Like in the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"

He gave me a blank look. "Now if you're done talking gibberish, listen to what I have to say. The sole purpose of the Outerlands is to guide fallen champions to their redemption. The Entity wanted his champions to earn their way back to the living."

"Wait," I said. "The Entity?"

"Yeah. You met him."

The Entity's words came back to me. 'Absolutely no one is to know of our encounter, or even my existence.'

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.

"Ha!" Primor laughed. "This wasn't a test, but if it were you passed. Don't worry about it. The Entity created the Outerlands, and me for that matter. Here everyone knows about him. You don't have to carry that secret here."

"Fine. Now how do I get back home? I died leaving an entire camp full of innocent people susceptible to death."

"Don't worry about it. If you were protecting those people, the Entity will have made sure it's protected. Let your mind at ease. Your world will get along without you until you return. But to do that you're going to need to be patient. You need all your focus on your trials."

"I don't know what trials you're talking about."

"Of course you don't. I haven't explained that yet. Let me put it simply: you died. To get back to life, you need to build yourself to be ready to go back to the real world. Because if you die a second time, you ain't coming back here. That's it. You're done. Now to build yourself, you need to go through your trials. Each trial will be vigorous and unforgiving, and will not end until the trial master knows for sure you succeeded. Then you'll get your gift and move on to the next."

"Trial master?" I said. "Gift?"

"Each trial is led by a trial master," he said. "After you complete it, they'll reward you. It's pretty simple."

"Okay. So how do I do my first trial?"

"Is that eagerness or impatience?"

"Uh, both kind of."

"Wrong answer."

"What?"

Suddenly he clapped both his hands on my shoulders, stared me in my eyes, and then said, "I'm your first trial master." Then he threw me backward and I began to fall.

* * *

I fell for several minutes. I don't know how I got so high above the ground. I twirled midair to face the ground but couldn't see it. Whatever the atmosphere was made of was too thick for me to see through, so it looked like I was falling through a void. Eventually I finally did see the green terrain speeding toward me much faster than I'd thought it would. I barely had a few seconds to panic before I was suddenly laying on the ground without an impact.

When I got to my feet, I found myself in a very similar landscape to the one I was just in, but this time there were countless identical houses surrounding me, placed in a seemingly random pattern. There were no roads and no logical reasoning to the angle of the houses. It was all completely random.

"Find me," I heard Primor's voice say from behind me. I turned and saw nothing but more houses. Doing the only thing there was to do, I walked into the nearest house.

It was pretty rustic and neatly furnished. It's your stereotypical 'grandma's house'. After walking in the front door you're facing a staircase with hand railing leading to a solid wall, strangely. The walls were covered with photographs and paintings; all of them depicting Primor (several of them were topless).

There were several shelves stocked with random baubles (snow globes, figurines, etc.) and more portraits of Primor. To the left of the front door is the living room, with a large carpet covering the hardwood floor, a very soft looking couch, a wooden rocking chair, and a T.V. stand with a large crystal ball on top of it.

Behind the staircase there's a door leading to a normal bathroom, which has another door leading to the kitchen, which loops back around to the main entrance.

So this house wass empty of life and the only thing I learned was that Primor thought a lot of himself, and that the Outerlands are a very, _very_ strange place.

Having seen the entire house and no sign of Primor, I exited, leaving the door open so I'd have a way of remembering I'd already searched it. After that I randomly picked another house and looked inside of it.

It was perfectly identical to the previous in every single way, including the fact that Primor wasn't in it.

"This is going to take a while," I muttered.

So I searched the next one, then the next one, and all the others. After what felt like at least a couple of hours, I found Primor in what felt like the thousandth house I'd searched. I walked in and everything was exactly the same as per usual, but this time Primor was sitting in the rocking chair with a clipboard and pencil.

When he didn't give any sign that he noticed I'd entered the house, I said, "I found you."

"Indeed you did," said Primor without looking up.

"So is that it?" I asked. "Trial over?"

"Ha!" he said and wrote something down. "Percy, if that was the entire trial, what do you think the theme of it was?"

"I don't know," I said. "The ability to complete a tedious assignment?"

"No," he said and wrote something else down.

"What are you writing?" I asked.

He looked up at me. "I'm logging down how you're doing in my trial."

"And how am I doing?"

"Well I can promise you this will be the longest trial you'll have. And exactly how long it is depends on how long it takes you to succeed in it. There ain't no failure. But with you I can say this trial will be a bit shorter for you than it was for everyone else."

"Everyone else?"

"The other champions. Like I said, yours will be a bit shorter. I'm impressed with your past. Two weeks without much to entertain yourself with when tailing those hunters, without even sleeping. And your entire life's mission. You're a single soldier in a war you intend on winning. Those past four years you handled very well. Those are both major points in your favor. But if you're going to finish this trial, you'll need to do show me you're completely and utterly capable of something you did and are doing during those things I mentioned."

"And what's that?"

"If I tell you you won't grow. That's what this is all about. The point of these trials isn't to just test you for the sake of testing you. It's for you to improve upon yourself. But with my trial, it's going to be almost impossible for you to achieve your growth if you know what it is you're trying to achieve."

"That makes no sense," I said.

"It does. But it don't matter if it does to you. Let's get on to the next part of the trial."

He got to his feet and walked to the house's entrance and I followed him outside.

When we got outside, all I saw was a large pile of hay.

"Where did all of the houses go?" I asked.

"It's right behind you," Primor answered.

I turned around and there was only the house we came out of; just the one.

"That's just one house," I said. "I searched at least two hundred."

"Did you?" he said.

Confused, I dropped the subject and focused my attention on the haystack, which is where Primor led us.

"There's a needle in there," he said. "Get it for me."

"Are you serious?" I asked.

His pencil touched the paper.

"Alright, alright," I said. "I'll do it. "

He stopped himself from writing whatever he was going to write, but then wrote something anyway.

"It's important you take your time," he said. "Rushing ain't gonna accomplish nothing."

I got down on my knees and grabbed a handful of hay. I sifted through it and tossed it away from the haystack. I heard the scratching of a pencil on paper as I grabbed the next handful, searched it, then tossed it aside.

A handful at a time I moved nearly the entire haystack away from its original position. I grabbed another handful and this time I felt a prick on my palm. I grabbed the needle and shook the hay out of my hand.

"I found it!" I said and stood, holding it out to Primor.

He took it and carelessly tossed it behind him. "Good job," he said.

"Is that it?" I asked, a little miffed at how little he cared about the object I spent so much effort obtaining.

"No," he answered and wrote on his clipboard. "Walk to the house."

Obediently, I turned and took several steps in the house's direction.

"Stop," he called out. "Come back."

I turned around and the hay was gone. Now there was a contraption and a chair next to Primor. I walked to it.

"Sit down," he said.

I did as he asked. In front of me was a large button, and behind it was a flat, metal pole with a centered on top of it.

"You're going to press that button," he said. "When you do, the ball is going to move either left or right. Right before it gets to the end, you're going to hit it again and it'll go in the other direction. Then you'll hear a ding Again, you're going to hit it before it gets to the end. You'll hear another ding. If you hit the button too late, it'll fall off the edge and you'll have to start over. Do not just spam the button. Hit it right before it hits the edge. If you hit it too soon, no ding. It won't count."

"Alright," I said. I hit the button and the ball began to move to the right. Before it hit the edge, I hit the button again and it immediately began going to the left and I heard a ding. Before it hit the left edge, I pushed the button and there was another ding.

I'd heard a couple thousand dings before the ball abruptly stopped in the middle of the platform.

"Do I push it again?" I asked.

"You don't have to," he said.

I stood. "Alright. What's next?"

He gave me an interesting look and wrote something down.

* * *

It could have been days. It could have been weeks. All I know is that it felt like a massive amount of time. In the Outerlands, exhaustion isn't a thing. Hunger and thirst aren't things. Defecation and urination aren't things. Just the trial. I had absolutely no way of perceiving the passage of time. No matter what, the sky remained the same shade of gray.

There were just dozens and dozens of long, tedious, and most prominently, pointless tasks for me to do.

At one point a part of my mind decided that there wasn't a point in being annoyed or bored. So I simply wasn't. Patiently, I readily accepted any task Primor assigned me. The length or meaninglessness of the task was irrelevant.

It was shortly after my subconscious had that epiphany that my trial ended.

I'd literally just finished watching paint dry and asked, "What's next?"

"Your results," he said.

"I'm done?" I said.

"You're done. Let's get to the house."

When we got inside, Primor sat in the rocking chair and I sat on the couch.

"You passed the trial," said Primor.

"And what exactly was the trial?" I asked.

"I'm sure you've figured it out by now. It's patience. In order for you to have completed the trial, I had to know that you had a high enough tolerance for long tasks without becoming annoyed or upset. It's an important skill, especially for someone such as yourself. Before you came to the Outerlands your mind was focused on the end. Now your mind focuses on the here and now, and also sees the past, present, and future as a whole."

"So this whole thing was just to get me to be able to be patient?" I said.

"Yessir. But mastering patience is just the stepping off point to a whole new set of skills. Your mind is a powerful thing. And now you're a large step closer to utilizing it to your tremendous advantage."

"So what's my reward for finishing the trial?" I asked.

"Glad you asked." He tossed his clipboard and pencil aside and drew a dagger, then struck his palm with it. From the cut a tiny thin plume of purple smoke came out. He put the dagger away and took out a glass vial. The smoky blood snaked through the air and inside the vial. Once inside, it condensed into liquid, like water vapor on a cold glass. He corked the vial and tossed it to me. "That is your gift. Blood — "

"Holds a lot of power," I finished for him. The entity had said that to me once. I removed the cork and drank the purple blood. Just like when I drank the Entity's blood, I felt a rush of power spread through my body. It lasted several seconds and then I felt normal again. "What did you give me?"

"I gave you an enhanced ability to improve. To learn. To evolve. All of that was inhibited by the constraints of your mind. I removed those constraints. Now you can learn new skills a lot faster, improve previous skills more easily, and most importantly of all, you can tinker with your powers."

"Tinker with my powers? What does that mean?"

"You're a smart kid. You might only have killing Prometheus to thank for that but you're smart. You'll figure it out."

"How do you know so much about me?" I asked.

"Well I saw," he said. He pointed at the crystal ball on the T.V. stand.

I saw nothing in it but the smoky stationary patterns the crystalline material had.

"Alright, then," I said. "Thanks, Primor."

"Not a problem."

"So how do I get to my next trial?"

"Just step out that door and you'll meet your next trial master. It was good to know you, Percy Jackson, or should I say Assassin?"

"Percy's fine," I said and stood. "I guess this is goodbye?"

"Yep it is."

I extended my hand out to him, giving him the handshake I denied him when we first met. After a single shake I turned and walked to the door. As I traversed out of the house, I caught a glance of Primor's clipboard. It was filled with incoherent symbols.

The Outerlands are indeed a very weird place.


	11. White

After leaving Primor's house I found myself in a forest. As could be expected, the house had disappeared as soon as I left it. Taking only a second to decide which direction to walk in I started making my way through the woods.

Less than a minute after beginning my aimless trek toward what I'd hope would be a path of some kind, I spotted an animal. From behind a bush a large pair of antlers could be seen. Before I could think to hide my presence from it, it looked up at me. It was a beautiful deer with a pure white coat. I had just a second to admire how majestic it was before it ran away.

Not really knowing what I'd do if I caught it, I chased after it because from my experience so far everything in the Outerlands served a purpose. This stag could probably be leading me to my next trial master.

It didn't take long to see that I was right. I'd lost sight of it seconds after it began to run from me, but after running in the same direction as it for a couple of minutes I came upon a small shack. In front of it was the white stag, with a man wearing a dark trench coat petting it. I slowed my pace to a walk and continued in their direction.

"Percy Jackson," the man said in a low voice, but I heard it as clear as if he'd shouted it.

I didn't say anything but continued toward them.

"Beautiful creature, is it not?" he asked. One of his hands remained on the deer's face and the other slowly moved to inside his jacket.

I was twenty feet from him when suddenly his hand darted from his pocket and the stag let out a pained cry.

"Hey!" I shouted and ran the rest of the distance.

He showed his palm to me, signaling me to halt as he held the dying stag. Crimson blood seeped from its neck where a dagger was lodged.

"You've hunted before," said the man. "With the Hesperide — former Hesperide. A love interest is she? It doesn't matter. Don't act like this animal's death is something new to you."

"It — " I said, staring at its eyes as it became still.

"Was special?" he cut off. "Why yes, it was. White fur. Quite rare. But that's it. It's just another deer. Just another link in the food chain. Just another slab of venison for its hunter to feed on."

"Who are you?" I asked.

He finally looked up at me. He had no irises. His eyes were nothing but white, yet I could tell that he saw far more than I did.

"I'm Gund," he answered. "And your second trial is an easy one." He wrapped his fingers around the handle of the blade and pulled it from the dead animal's throat. He withdrew a cloth from a pocket and wiped the blood from the blade, then suddenly struck his palm with it. White smoke emanated from the wound and he stored it into a vial and corked it, the smoke becoming liquid.

"You're going to enter that shack," said Gund. "You will find all the tools you'll need. Then you'll come out, and kill the black stag. Its death will reward you with this." He gave the vial a tiny shake.

"That's it?" I said. "Hunt the deer, then trial over?"

"Of course. Kill the deer. Issuing death is nothing new to you, Assassin." He took a step and held his hand out to his side, gesturing to the shack.

Following his instructions I opened the door and stepped into the tiny building. On the wall hung a sleek, ivory bow. On the right was a shelf holding a quiver full of arrows, a dagger accompanied by a sheath, and a small rectangular piece of some kind of stone. To the left of the bow was a large box without a lid containing at least a few hundred more arrows, so I apparently had a lot of room for error.

I grabbed the sheath and dagger and clipped it to my ragged pants then slung the quiver of arrows and bow over my shoulder. I then drew the dagger from its sheath to examine it and found it was very dull. Realizing that the piece of stone was a whetstone, I just left the dagger next to it thinking that if I had to stab the deer for whatever reason, I could just use Krinos, or an arrow by hand.

After exiting the shack I saw no sign of the dead white stag nor Gund. What I did see was the black stag eating grass a hundred feet in front of me. Silently, I pulled an arrow from my quiver and nocked it. I pulled the bowstring back, aimed, and missed. I missed by over a foot. The deer jumped at the noise and ran away.

My inherited ability to aim was gone. Were all my powers gone too? I put my bow back over my shoulder and tried to summon Krinos. Nothing happened.

Now understanding the full scope of the trial, I reentered the shack and put the dagger's sheath back on my pants. Then I picked up the dagger and whetstone and set to work.

* * *

I spent a decent amount of time sharpening both the dagger and all the arrows in my quiver. I then spent a lot more time working on my aim with the bow, as I no longer possessed the pinpoint accuracy I'd obtained from one of the two archery gods I'd killed.

What I did was carve a target into the side of the shack with my knife (which was very easy once I got it razor sharp), then I just started shooting at it. Starting from twenty feet away, I missed the target literally every time. My aim was abysmal.

So then I took a more critical approach to it. I did my best to recall what I'd do when archery came naturally to me, then tried to recreate the actions. I also studied the way the arrows moved through the air and how the wind affected it (this having real intelligence thing is still so foreign to me). Soon I hit the target every single time, although constantly being able to hit on or near the bull's eye still wasn't a thing I could do yet.

But I improved, much faster than I'd thought I would (I guess I can attribute this to Primor's gift). Eventually I hit close to the center of the target every single time. I moved back to fifty feet away. It took awhile, but I got accurate from this distance too. After working on my aim from a hundred feet I felt ready.

I wasn't the best hunter in the world. I'm actually not very good at it at all, really. But I am close friends with the literal best hunter in the world: Zoë Nightshade, who inherited the title after being the lieutenant to the now deceased goddess of hunting for around two thousand years. She and I hunted together on a few occasions. Most of the time we'd hunted monsters, but a couple times we bagged a few rabbits, and only once did we kill a deer. Why only once? Well the first time we'd attempted it I'd scared the deer away and Zoë got pretty mad at me, so we stuck with rabbits and monsters from that point forward. But we'd spotted a deer one other time. She'd hissed at me to stay out of the way and then killed it by herself. It's venison was delicious and Zoe made some incredible jerky out of the leftovers.

Some of the things she'd taught me about hunting that had actually stuck with me were how to track an animal, to stay downwind of the animal, and where to shoot the animal to give it the quickest and least painful death.

" _Killing animals for food is a necessary part of life, but giving them long and painful deaths is for the demented_ ," Zoë once said to me. The last part was especially important to her, what with having an actually demented and psychotic titan for a father.

It took a little bit of time but I eventually tracked down the deer. First I'd looked for berry bushes that showed signs of having been recently eaten from, then followed that until I found footprints. After that I just had to interpret their direction and follow them. Finally, I saw a clean black coat in the distance. I checked the direction of the wind by picking a tuft of grass then made sure I was downwind of the black stag as I carefully approached it.

When I was in a good location, I nocked an arrow and aimed straight for its heart, then let it fly. It let out a yelp and fell to its side. By the time I got to it, it was already drained of life. I knelt down to touch it but it disappeared into a wisp of nothing, leaving the vial full of white blood in its place.

"I created that animal," I heard Gund's voice say. I looked up and he was standing five feet in front of me. "Killing it was a mercy. It came into this land already an adult. Animal's minds don't work the same as man's. That deer expected to eat plants, flee from predators, and mate. It could only eat. Without predators to fear or does to inseminate, it's lost. So came the hunter, and mercy."

"I completed your trial," I said, deciding I didn't really like Gund all that much. "What is this?" I held up the vial.

"You did complete the trial," said Gund. "But I still have you until I send you off to Trecy. And for you to understand your gift, you must learn."

"Learn what?" I asked.

He walked up to me and placed his finger on my forehead and my vision instantly became obscured by nothing but white. I was in a white void but I could still see my body when I looked down.

"Turn around, Perseus," Gund said from behind me.

I pivoted and saw my trial master. I stood next to him and an apparition appeared ahead of us. There was a rock with three blurry shapes on it. The one in the middle became crisper and clearer until it was an only slightly blurry old woman, with three golden holes in her neck.

"Atropos," said Gund. "Determiner of death. Your first godly kill."

I was going to say something but my voice caught in my throat.

"This is where you listen, Assassin," said Gund.

Atropos stood up but quickly became indistinguishably blurry again. Soon the shape became clear again, but this time took the form of the second god I'd killed.

"Thanatos," continued Gund. "The god of death, fell to the deathbringer of gods."

Thanatos took a step forward, but before both of his feet were parallel he was blurry again. Gund and I took a step backward.

The blurry person solidified into another man.

"Hades," said Gund. "God of the Underworld, and the dead. Your uncle by birth, and your first and most powerful ally."

The two other blurry shapes that sat by Atropos came forward and settled next to the now blurry Hades, then all three took shape at the same time.

"Sally Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Zoë Nightshade. These three women are the only mortals you are close to. Their inevitable deaths are out of your control. You'd give your own life to keep any one of them alive, sacrificing your life's goal."

I'd nearly forgotten what all three of them looked like, my mother especially. I've not seen her in years. Does she even know I still care about her?

Zoë and my mother faded again, then one of them took the shape of Luke.

"Luke Castellan," said Gund. "The two of you have a lot in common. You love your mothers, hate your fathers. You both embarked upon quests to end the reign of the gods. Annabeth has had crushes for both of you. And you've both died."

' _Wait, what_?' I tried to say aloud but couldn't. How is Luke dead? How much time has passed since I died? And since when did Annabeth have a crush on me?

"Luke was always an inspiration to Annabeth," said Gund. "But he was so much older than her. But with looks as good as his, how could she not fall in love with him? She saw so much of him in you. Of course she became infatuated, but her love was always for him."

The third shape took the form of a punk girl with short, spiky black hair.

"Unfortunately for Annabeth, Luke never fell out of love with the deceased Thalia Grace."

The three people blended together into one blurry shape before taking on the appearance of me.

"Percy Jackson, the Assassin of Olympus," said Gund. "So much death on his road. He died himself. Yet he still hasn't truly faced mortality. Luke is dead. Zoë, Annabeth, and your mother will die, sooner or later. But you have the misconception that having an in with the god of the Underworld makes you and the people you care about invincible. You have full access to the Underworld and everything in it, but when those close to you eventually go down there for good, you _will_ lose them. It's important that you truly accept this fact. It's not as simple as bringing everyone you don't want to have died back to life. If you try that, Hades will stop you. If you get past him, the Entity will stop you. Death is bigger than you, bigger than the gods. Do you accept this?"

I was silent for a while, letting his words sink in as I stared at my fuzzy mirror image. I honestly did think that if I'd failed to save my mother it wouldn't be so bad because I live in the Underworld. It never occurred to me how final death really was, because I could visit the dead whenever I wanted. But if someone I do care about dies, bringing them back is impossible. Maybe when it actually happens, visiting them before they go off to their afterlives would be a mistake, for me and them both.

"I accept it," I said, finally having my voice back. Killing the black stag wasn't the true trial — this was. I uncorked the vial in my hand and drank it.

"Those undead warriors you can summon aren't people," said Gund. "People have souls. Your skeletons don't. Just for your own peace of mind."

"What did you give me?" I asked.

"Death leaves this powerful energy in the air. The Entity calls it flux. It's weird, invisible, unpredictable, but useful. You now have the ability to wield it, not without limits of course. Right now you can't do anything with flux, because you don't have any. To harness some you'll have to kill things. Animals, people, and most monsters don't leave much flux, but they do leave some. Enough to practice with and use against other animals, people, and monsters. But you're a god killer. To get enough flux to wield against another god, you'd have to kill a god. The stronger the god, the more flux you harness."

"So I can weaponize death?" I said. "It's like another form of magic?"

"Simply put, yes, but manipulating flux is much more complicated and so different to your typical magic."

"I guess I'll have to play around with it," I said. "So how do I get to my next trial?"

"I'll show you in a second. I just want to say one more thing about flux. It doesn't exist in the Underworld, and its presence dwindles quickly. There are no shortcuts. You can't just go around to places you've killed other gods and collect flux, because there won't be any there. To 'charge up', so to speak, you have to kill."

"I got it," I said.

"Alright, then. Close your eyes."

I did as he said and suddenly felt his finger on my forehead again, then I felt it removed. I opened my eyes and I was back in the vast, empty plains. In the distance I could see a rectangular building, but I couldn't really tell what it was. It was too far. I did a three-sixty to make sure there was nothing else then set off to the building.


	12. Orange

As I got closer to my destination it became apparent that it was neither rectangular nor a regular building. It was a coliseum. It was a massive circular arena that looked exactly like what the famous Roman Colosseum would look like in its prime.

During the walk there I realized the bow, dagger, and quiver of arrows Gund had given me disappeared along with the forest. I supposed the items were exclusive to that one trial.

When I finally reached the coliseum there was a large barred gate at the entrance that automatically opened at my approach. Without hesitation I stepped through the gateway and found myself in a short tunnel leading to another barred gate of equal size to the first. I could only assume that lead to the arena.

Along the walls were suits of armor — and they came to life. As I walked the first suit wrapped itself around me. This one, unlike all the others, wasn't a full plated suit but instead just a light set of chainmail, helmet included. The next set of armor placed a shield on my left arm and the next put a sword in my hand. The final two were turning cranks right before the gate, causing it to rise up, allowing me into the center of the arena.

Now fully geared up without slowing my pace one bit, I stepped through the second gateway into a large arena surrounded by enough seating for a thousand spectators, but was completely empty except for one other person.

Directly in my path and in the center of the coliseum was a tall woman wearing a full set of plated armor over her muscular body and had a very large sword on her back. She had shoulder length brown hair that was very messy and an unattractive, dirty face. She reminded me of a far more beefed up version of Clarisse from Camp Half-Blood.

As I got closer to her she pulled her sword from her sheath and took a readied stance, and then she suddenly launched at me. I instinctively rolled to the side. By the time I was on my feet again her sword was already swinging at me again. I held up my shield and the sword collided with it, the momentum knocking me backwards a foot. I stumbled but kept on my feet.

She swung again, and I dodged. I tried to swing but she sidestepped it. This went back and forth for a few seconds until I was on my back and the woman had her broadsword leveled at my face. Then she moved it away then stabbed it several inches into the ground and I got to my feet.

"I'm Trecy," she said with gruff but not that deep a voice. "Unlike your other trials where you had to figure out how to finish them yourself, I'm going to train you to complete it."

"Alright," I said, rubbing the spot on my chest where the flat of her sword hit me. "What's the trial?"

"There are a few parts to it. First you'll have to best me with each different type of weapon, then you'll have the final part of the trial where I'll use my preferred weapon and you have to get your gift from me." She pointed to the greatsword when saying, 'preferred weapon' and took out an empty glass vial when saying, 'gift'. "Turn around and pick your tool."

Behind me there was a perfectly straight line of different weapons stabbed into the ground including the shortsword she had disarmed from me. I chose the spear because it's the closest thing there was to Krinos, which once again I could no longer summon.

Trecy left the greatsword where it was and then took the first weapon in the line: a mace. She then pointed at a spot across the arena and I walked to it then turned to face her. The line of weaponry was gone, excluding the greatsword which was still crookedly lodged in the dirt.

I held my spear and shield at the ready. She nodded and charged forward a second later. I dodged her attack, then blocked her second. I tried to counterattack but she blocked it then struck gain. Only a few traded blows later, my spear was snapped in half and she kicked me to the ground.

"You made several mistakes," she said as I got to my feet. "You're too eager to land a hit. You have to wait for your opening, and then strike. And you're using a fragile weapon that's also quite large. With a pole arm you have to focus on being fast and untouchable. You need to move around a lot, dodge more than you block. Confuse and disorient your opponent, and also try and get them off their feet. That way you'll have an easier time trying to land a blow. Watch."

She pointed to her left at nothing. I was going to say something then two spectral people appeared. They were transparent figures facing each other, one holding a mace and the other holding a spear. They began to fight. The one with the spear moved like a blur. He twirled his spear like a propeller and flipped and tore through the air like gravity didn't apply to him. He moved his weapon like it was a part of his own body, sometimes using it to hold his weight while he basically glided around his opponent. The one with the mace couldn't keep up. They tried to strike but they might as well have been trying to kill air. Spear-Guy smacked his opponent with the blunt end of the spear and they stumbled forward, giving Spear-Guy perfect opportunity to impale them, and he did. He jumped up and shoved the spear through his opponent's chest with all his weight, going all the way through and lodging into the ground. The figure with the mace vanished and Spear Guy picked up his weapon and gave it a victory twirl.

"You need to be able to do that," said Trecy.

"How am I supposed to do that?" I said. "That's a level of skill I've never come close to achieving."

"The Viper here will teach you," she answered.

"His name is the Viper?"

"Well he's not really real. Just a faceless spectral projection, but I like to give them names."

"Viper, then. So what's the first step to me getting from here to there?" I asked, gesturing to myself then the Viper.

"Let's get to work," said Trecy.

* * *

So I trained, for a really long time. And I fell down, a lot. With Trecy's and the Viper's help I mastered move after move. There were so many minute little steps and maneuvers that we spent a lot of time getting me to master every single one of them. It was literally like learning a new language. I had to learn thousands of maneuvers, and how to string them all together to form a perfect, lethal combo. It was far more intellectual than you'd expect it to be.

One on one combat is what we spent the least amount of time on. Defeating a single opponent is easy compared to fighting numerous ones, as you'd expect. First I learned to fight a duo, then a trio, and so on and so forth. The people I was actually fighting for the training were just more spectral people.

Eventually, I became fluent in the language of combat. I knew the information and had the movements burned into muscle memory. And I also had practical experience in utilizing my newly learned combat skills. I still wasn't even close to being as good as the Viper, though (although I doubt I ever will be. He's an amalgam of unattainable skills that creates the perfect warrior. You literally cannot get any more skilled than him), but I became good enough to finish my trial. And I can continue practicing with my more advanced knowledge of combat when I get back to Earth, so I can continue to improve (at an accelerated rate, thanks to Primor).

With my muscles burning, I sat in the bleachers taking a break from the training. Trecy also put me through many long and rigorous exercise routines, one of which I'd just completed. I was very sweaty, but not thirsty. I'm almost as excited to be able to drink and eat and sleep again as I am to see Zoë, Hades, and Annabeth. It's felt like I've been in the Outerlands for an eternity, but I still haven't aged a day.

After a long time of sitting, I left the stands and reentered the arena, ready to start my actual trial.

Trecy used a mace and I used a spear. We fought and I disarmed her. Then she used a sword, then staff, spear, daggers, flail, and all the other weapons she'd stabbed into the ground in a straight line. I won all of them, but not easily. The most difficult battle I had was when she used a spear as well. When using a spear, you have to be faster than your opponent. But she knows that and we were both trying to be faster than each other. In the end with spear versus spear it came down to me be more strategic than my opponent, which is how I managed to defeat her.

Finally all the weapons were gone, except for her greatsword. Trecy dislodged the weapon from the ground and then walked over to me. She took an empty vial out of her pocket and handed it to me.

"You cut me and fill that vial," she said, "and you complete your trial."

"Not a problem," I said with feigned cockiness, pocketing the vial.

I walked to my side of the arena and took a readied stance and she did the same. She gave a nod and our final battle began.

Using a spear is about being fast. So if my opponent is using a big and heavy weapon, the fight should be a piece of cake, right? Wrong. Trecy is almost as talented with a broadsword as the Viper is with a spear. She kicked it up to full gear. She seemed unstoppable. I'm supposed to try and be fast, untouchable, always out of her reach. She counters by attacking my mobility. She strikes the ground with the sword full force, knocking me off balance, giving her plenty of time to swoop in with a strike only for me to just barely roll out of the way in time.

So I played defensively for a bit, took the time to analyze her fighting patterns and figure out a way to get an advantage. After a bit of critical thinking, I developed a plan of attack and prepared to execute it.

Trecy had taken a defensive approach as well, so we were both circling without striking for a few seconds. Then I gave my spear a series of twirls for flash and then advanced. I jumped at her with the spear tip pointed at her, waiting to play off her reaction. She swiped up at me while I was in midair and her sword collided with my spear, knocking me to the right. I did a roll as I landed then ran around her, trying to get behind her but she pivoted to face me.

She swung her sword in an arc I was hoping she would and I began to execute my plan. The sword flew at me at a downward and to the right angle and I jumped over it to the left. The momentum of the swing caused her sword to slide across the ground for half a second. I feigned a strike and she brought the sword back in an arc exactly the opposite to the previous one: upwards and to the left. I rolled to the right, the sword missing me completely, and I thrusted the spear at her. With her left hand she caught the shaft of the spear as I'd expected she would. I then yanked the spear backwards to myself before she could do anything with the sword in her other hand hand. I dropped the spear, grabbed the vial and uncorked it. Orange smoke emanated from the wound I'd created on her palm when yanking it out of her grip and flew into the vial, condensing into liquid.

"Well done, Assassin," said Trecy. "You're almost ready to face your enemies. But you have one last trial first."

"I'm prepared for it," I said. "But first thing's first." I drank the blood. "What'd you give me?"

"A tolerance for pain," she answered. "Not immunity from it, but a tolerance. Your body will still be able to detect injury and the severity of it, but it won't hinder you nearly as much."

I pinched my arm as hard as I could. I barely felt it. "That's amazing."

"Now rethink everything you thought you knew," said Trecy before suddenly dissolving into thin air. Then the world warped around me and stretched and blurred together until all I could see were just random shapes and colors.


	13. Green

I couldn't feel the ground anymore. I felt like I was floating weightlessly through a polygonal void of colors.

". . .about magic," a female voice said that sounded like it was coming from all around me.

Suddenly the colors and shapes snapped together and I felt my weight on the ground again. I was now in some kind of dojo, with Japanese paper windows and dark brown wood — but it felt fake, for some reason. The walls didn't seem like they were actually there, even though I could see them as clear as day. And there was this strange aura in the room that was almost visible. It was like there was a completely separate room in the exact same place as the dojo, but I couldn't interact with it in any way.

"Your experience using magic is very little," said the same voice I'd heard before.

When I blinked there was a woman standing a couple of feet in front of me; she'd just appeared out of nowhere. Her hair was tightly bound in the back, in what I assume was some kind of ponytail or braid. Her face was quite attractive and she had emerald green eyes and she wore a dark gray robe with a hood that rested on her back.

"I am Ultis," said the woman. "And your final trial is to escape this room, and I will teach you how."

"Using magic?" I guessed.

"Correct," Ultis replied.

"But I can't do magic," I said. "Not inherently. I don't have my — "

I stopped talking because suddenly she held my gauntlet in her hand.

" — gauntlet," I finished saying. "How'd you get that? Shouldn't that be on Earth with my corpse?" The words sounded so strange coming from my mouth. Even with how long I'd been in this strange place, it was still weird knowing that I'd actually died.

"You don't have a corpse," said Ultis. "The fire from Hyperion's sword burnt your body to ash. There's nothing left of you. But the body you're in now is identical to your old one, and it will return with you to Earth. As for your possessions, they all came here with you. The Entity retrieved them at your death and you'll be able to collect them before your return to your world."

"Oh," I said. I probably should have assumed my body had burnt up. "So the Entity gave you my gauntlet after I died?"

"Indeed," she answered. "It's necessary for you to complete this trial."

She then held my gauntlet out to me, but as I started to reach up to grab it glowing white cracks appeared and spread throughout it until it shattered into nothing, leaving behind a glowing white ball which she forcefully shoved into my chest.

I felt the ball of light phase through me and then run under my skin in tendrils, spreading throughout my body until the sensation subsided.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I've transferred the gauntlet's ability to wield magic into you. Now I must teach you to wield it properly."

I raised my left hand and conjured a ball of flame. The heat didn't touch my skin. I then tried the same with my right hand and it succeeded as well.

"So am I fireproof now?" I asked.

"No. You can be undamaged by flames if you cast the magic and concentrate on the part of your body you wish to defend. By summoning the flame you automatically make your palms invulnerable, which is the first step to mastering fire immunity magic."

"Is that what you're going to teach me first?"

"It could be, if you wish. But the magic you already know is a single drop of water in the ocean that is magic. There is so much to be learned."

"Oh. Well, where should we start?"

"We start here," she said and held out her hands adjacent to each other and moved her arms clockwise in a circular pattern then held them in place. In the circle she created with her hands the air glimmered and warped like tiny pieces of glass folding in on themselves until a clear portal to some kind of other dimension was visible. Before I could comprehend what I saw through it she spun her arms counterclockwise and the portal vanished.

"Like the Outerlands, the mystical realm transcends planar existence," said Ultis. "But unlike the Outerlands the mystical realm does not exist physically. It is intangible. But it produces an energy that can seep into your plane or any other plane if there's someone to will it do so and also control it."

"You're saying plane," I said. "Primor said that too. What does it mean?"

"Your plane is your world. Earth."

"But why don't you just say Earth, or planet, or something?"

"It is unimportant for you to know this information. The Entity does not babysit just you and your plane, and that's all you shall know. Now, sit down and close your eyes."

Still confused and reluctant to drop the topic, I followed her instructions and sat cross-legged on the floor.

"Try and empty your mind. Try to see without your eyes. Relax."

"Is this like meditation or something?"

"If it helps you. The mind is the door to the mystical realm. You must convince it that you can access it."

"Alright," I said and took a deep breath.

"Try not to think."

* * *

I spent a lot of time meditating. Before we even started practicing magic Ultis made me try and 'clear my mind' for several hours at a time then made me demonstrate the magic I already knew to her and then she'd give me her criticisms.

Eventually she'd decided that I'd succeeded in taking control of my mind, and we moved on to accessing the mystical realm.

"Close your eyes," said Ultis. "See beyond your eyelids. Feel the magical energy in the air. Command the mystical realm to leak its power to the Outerlands."

Following her instructions, I closed my eyes and cleared my headspace, something I've gotten pretty decent at by now. Then I convinced myself that I was going to summon a flame but didn't actually do it, tricking my brain into commanding magical energy to release itself from the mystical realm. I focused on the air around me, trying to feel fluctuations — and then I did. I focused on what I felt and it became clearer, like I was actually seeing the magical energy through my closed eyes.

There were two separate tendrils of magical energy, each one stemming from my hand. They led upwards and then swirled around each other, intertwining. Then they branched out dozens of times, the further up the energy went, the less clear it was and the less I felt it.

"Summon more," said Ultis.

I did as she asked and the stems of energy near my hand got thicker and the branches split apart a lot more, reaching out further like a tree that wouldn't stop growing.

"Gather it," she said.

I raised my palms so they were touching the tendrils of magical energy, then I concentrated on controlling it. I imagined a vortex sucking the energy into a point between my two hands and then the branches folded in on themselves and swirled together into a funnel shape. Soon all the energy condensed into a small, dense ball in between my hands.

"Now make it return to where it came from," said Ultis, "but not without taking you with it."

I made the energy go even smaller and denser, then I cupped it in between my hands.

Acting on impulse and learning from the magical energy dancing across my palms, I brought my hands out as wide and far apart from each other as I could, stretching the energy into a large sphere with me inside it. Then I willed it to collapse into a single point and return to the mystical realm, but I didn't let go of it as it did so.

Immediately I felt immense vertigo. I felt like I was flying through an endless void at high speeds yet I could still sense my body sitting on the ground.

Then I suddenly felt normal again and found myself in some kind of tiny library. I was able to observe my surroundings even though I could still feel my eyes closed. When I looked down I had no body. It was like my consciousness was transported to wherever I am now yet my body had stayed where it was.

"The mystical realm is incomprehensible to the human mind," said Ultis. It sounded like she was standing right in front of me, which she likely still was. "It implants an image to depict itself inside your mind that you can understand. In your case it's a library."

"What do I do here?" I asked.

"Learn," she said simply.

The library was nothing but a very small room with a few bookshelves on the walls and a large rug in the center of the room. I took a step forward and noted how real it felt. It was like I had a second, invisible body. I could feel my arms moving and the weight my leg bore when I took a step, but all the same I could still feel my actual body outside the mystical realm being completely still. It was a very strange sensation.

When I arrived at the wall I noticed how two-dimensional the bookshelves looked. I reached my hand out and touched it, now understanding that the bookshelves were painted on the wall very realistically. As soon as my "hand" made contact with the wall it fell backward, revealing a much larger library. I turned around and saw that the other three walls had fallen as well. I had no idea what happened to the ceiling.

The new library was a seemingly endless expanse of bookshelves, and they made no sense. They were in odd shapes and at varying heights. Most rose dozens of feet up and disappeared into the darkness above and some were only tall enough to hold a single row of books. It looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Not knowing where to start I picked a book at random and opened it to the first page. It read:

"Ultis could teach you every single bit of magic you'll ever need through countless hours of practice, the same method you'd gone about with Hades. But she won't. Instead you must learn to understand how magic works, where it comes from. Learning to understand the mystical realm allows you to teach yourself any form of magic you can think of. You'll be able to create magic, as opposed to learning it."

I turned the page but couldn't understand the rest of the text. The rest of the book was filled with the same strange symbols Primor wrote on his clipboard. I closed the book and put it back on the shelf before grabbing another one. There was only one English sentence in this one and it read:

"Let's get started."

* * *

My experience in the mystical realm is pretty difficult to describe with words, but I'll try. It was basically just one giant puzzle. I opened book after book, trying to piece together a complete understanding of the mystical realm. A very small percentage of the books actually had English text in them. The rest seemed to represent some kind of elements, but not any that you'd find on the periodic table.

The third book I'd grabbed had the word, "notes," etched onto the cover, and all the pages were blank. Sitting in its place on the shelf was a pencil, which I picked up. This book I used to record everything I learned from the library's seemingly endless supply of books.

As I worked Ultis gave me a lot of hints to help me learn. Early on I came to the realization that the mystical realm was like an infinite void of resources to combine to craft spells. After I figured that out, I began focusing on learning about as many "resources" as possible to try and figure out how to properly construct a spell.

In my book I'd written down hundreds of different strange elements that I'd found in random books and everything I could learn about them. To learn anything about them that the books wouldn't directly teach me, I tried my hand at actually making spells by randomly mixing elements together. Seeing how I didn't have a body in the mystical realm, I couldn't actually cast any magic. But I did find a very large book that seemed to be where I'm supposed to actually do my elemental mixing.

I learned how to use what I dubbed the, "Master Book". The first quarter of the two-thousand page book contained all kinds of symbols and descriptions on what they were. I learned that they were actually puzzle pieces to connect together in endless different ways to make the magical elements work and bond with each other. The rest of the pages were all identical: the left page contained a box that showed an illustration of what my experiment would result in and the right page was blank, for actually drawing the symbols and elements together.

But it became apparent after some aimless experimentation that creating a spell was more complicated than just drawing symbols together. There were so many tiny details that were crucial to get perfect in order to have the outcome you're aiming for. I'd have to do an unfathomable amount of guess and check to actually achieve anything if I continued going about it this way.

So I figured out how to get the spells that I already knew to appear in the Master Book and began to reverse engineer them. This method set me leaps and bounds ahead of where I was before. I now had a practical understanding of how spells worked.

In my book I wrote down the recurring patterns and elements through all the spells I already knew and began developing a comprehensive method to construct a functioning spell, but not before jotting down the new information about the elements involved in my existing spells.

I could feel that a lot of time had passed but it felt like it whizzed by so quickly. I worked so diligently that my time in the mystical realm was just a blur. But finally I had developed a tried and true algorithm for creating spells.

After perfecting it I created a few test spells, (fire immunity, and some practically useless ones to test my limits, for example) then set to work on trying to escape the dojo. I started by playing around with the elements that had similar effects/outcomes to what I saw in the air and paper walls. Through my method I managed to recreate a similar spell used to make the illusory dojo, then I worked backwards to try and create a counter spell to it.

I opened my eyes and felt my consciousness rush back to the Outerlands.

"Welcome back," said Ultis. "I am impressed. The mystical realm forms itself and its rules to fit every person who ventures in there. I might have assumed it'd form a combative and physical environment for you to work, but instead it saw a scholar and logician inside you."

"My brain runs itself," I said. "I stole intelligence from Prometheus, but I still think like I did before. I don't feel any smarter, really, but things just sort of make sense to me without really trying."

"Fascinating. I believe you have a trial to complete."

I lit a flame in my palm, then willed my face to become immune to fire and held the fire inches from my nose — I felt nothing. I then tried casting the other test spells I created and they also worked exactly as intended. I was able to cast them as easily as the spells I'd learned from Hades and spent weeks learning and months mastering. Learning to access the mystical realm is a huge advancement for me.

Ultis gave me an expectant look.

I placed my palms on the ground and channeled mystical energy through them, to spread along the ground and up the walls then willed my counterspell to take effect and then the dojo shattered and dissipated into nonexistence. Now we were sitting in the usual endless, grassy expanse under the gray sky.

"Well done," said Ultis. She then held out her hand palm up toward me and a cut appeared on it. From it came a green smoke that moved to form the shape of a vial, then a glass and a cork suddenly appeared around it and the smoke turned to liquid.

I took the vial from her and drank it.

"Magic is very powerful, but you have your limits," said Ultis. "I've gifted you increased magical stamina. Now using magic wears down on you less, but that doesn't mean it's limitless."

"That's immensely helpful," I said. "Thank you."

"I have a couple of things you should know before I leave you. First: Gund gifted you the ability to manipulate flux. You mustn't mix flux and the mystical realm."

"Why not?" I asked.

"They are very reactive to each other. The result would be catastrophic. Use them separately."

"Okay then. I will not be mixing them."

"Lastly: the mystical realm has a weaker connection to Earth. You had an easier time with it here, but when you return to life you should expect slower results."

"Slower in what way?"

"Creating spells will take a longer amount of time. And you won't be able to draw as much magical energy there as quickly, although you've not come close to the limit in the Outerlands, so you shouldn't expect much change there. And you won't be able to create nearly as powerful spells as you would here."

"I understand. So this was my last trial, right?"

"Correct. The Entity will send you home. Follow the star." She gestured upwards.

I looked to the sky and saw a single, bright star not too far from the horizon.

"Goodbye, Perseus Jackson."

And just like that, she was gone, and I began walking in the direction of the lone star.


	14. Reality

**A/N: I took a long break between writing this chapter and the previous one. While writing Isolation, I wrote in a love arc between Percy and Zoë because I felt it made sense with how I recreated both characters in this story. I realized during the writing break that this story never needed a romance aspect to it, but it was too late to go back on it, so I tried to keep it in in some way while also driving the story's focus away from it so that it doesn't negatively impact the story. So if you're against romance in a non-romance story, then please bear with me because it will take up very little word count.**

* * *

I hadn't been walking long at all when I reached what could only be the edge of the Outerlands. A hundred feet away I could see a figure in the distance, but as I got nearer I could see that what had appeared to be an endless grassy expanse actually had an end. When I reached the Entity we were both just a foot away from the ledge. When I leaned over it all I could see was empty blackness.

"There were actually five trials," said the Entity, "but you've already completed the fifth."

"I did?" I said, confused.

"You kept my secret," he said. "Primor said it wasn't a test, but it was."

That jogged my memory. He was talking about when Primor first mentioned the Entity and I lied saying I didn't know who he was talking about.

"I have complex reasons for not wanting my existence known by many," continued the Entity, "but the most prominent in this situation was to test your trust to me."

"How could I not trust you?" I asked. "You've given me everything."

"Good response. As for your reward for your technically first trial, I have no vial of blood to give you. I will return trust with trust. To those whom you have faith in, you will no longer have to hide a secret from."

"What are you saying? I can tell them about you? How I got Krinos and my abilities and everything?"

"All you know," he confirmed.

"Thank you," I said. "That might just be the greatest reward I've gotten here. I don't know how I can keep my friends' loyalty without explaining why I didn't end up in the Underworld after I died."

"It would have been difficult," he agreed. "Are you ready to return home?"

"Yes."

"You can guess what to do," he said and held his hand out over the ledge. "Your belongings will be with you on your return."

I looked over the edge and took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and leaned forward. I blacked out immediately.

* * *

I woke up feeling like I'd slept for a century, and felt a barely noticeable ache in my back (I'd probably have noticed it more if it weren't for Trecy). I heard footsteps rushing toward me and then suddenly a very beautiful face full of several emotions was inches from mine.

"Perseus," she whispered.

"Oh, hey, Zoë," I said awkwardly. I didn't really know what to do in this situation. I was so happy to see her after being away for so long, but given our last interaction it was hard to know what she was thinking.

Suddenly there were tears in her eyes and she turned from me. I'd never seen her cry before. She was always so strong and emotionally stable even in the hardest times that I'd always assumed I never would.

I got to my feet with my limbs feeling a bit stiff and then got a look at my location. I was standing in the center of a small crater and Zoë was standing toward the edge of it.

I walked toward her and tried to put my hand on her shoulder but she turned and shoved me backwards.

"Thou were dead!" she said angrily. "Thou left me!"

"I left you," I agreed. "And I was dead. I'm sorry. But I'm here now. It's me."

I took a step forward as she wiped the tears from her eyes and regained her composure.

"Thou left!" she said again after taking a step back.

"I left, but I'm back now. I'm not going anywhere. Not this time." I took a deep breath, then addressed the elephant in the room. "You admitted that you have feelings for me, and I panicked. Over the few years we've known each other I made sure I wouldn't feel that way about you because with the enemies I'm facing it wouldn't be fair to put you in that kind of danger. But even though I tried to not see you in that way, it didn't work. And if you're not angry enough at me for reacting the way I did, we can talk about something real."

"Thou were gone for almost two months," she said. "And then thee just falls from the sky, gets up like it's nothing, and expects me to forget that?"

Nearly two months. That subtract the two weeks I went without seeing her before I died means I was gone for about a month and a half. And judging by the "falling out of the sky" thing I apparently created the crater we stood in.

"I'm not expecting you to forget anything," I said. "After I died I went to a place called the Outerlands and went what felt like years to me without seeing you, and all I could think about was that two weeks I willfully spent away from you, beating myself up over the way I left things between us. Of all the reasons for me to get back to Earth, you were the one I thought about most."

She looked less upset now. "What are 'the Outerlands'?" she asked.

"I'll explain that and everything else," I said and took a couple steps toward her, "but I need to do something first." Without giving her a chance to react, I closed the distance between us and our lips met. For a second she was tense and unresponsive, but then she relaxed and sunk into it. I moved my right hand to the side of her face and kept it there, then felt her left hand rest on my arm. Several seconds later, the kiss broke.

"I hope you haven't changed your mind about wanting something real," I said, staring into her eyes.

"I can consider forgiving you for leaving me, as long as thee doesn't die again," she responded.

I could see a happy glimmer in her eyes and couldn't help but smile. "Did you just say 'you'?" I asked.

"Thee," she corrected.

"I don't want to put you in any danger."

"I can protect myself."

"I'm up against gods."

"We are," she corrected.

* * *

Over an hour passed and I had to return to the Underworld, but I took Zoë with me. We discussed it and she agreed to stay in the Underworld until it was safer for her to be on the surface. The gods had ignored her up until this point, but with my coming back to life they'll probably be trying to hurt me through anyone I care about.

After we kissed I explained everything to her. I told her about the Entity, how he gave me my powers and trident, and about my experience in the Outerlands. It would have been more efficient to tell her, Hades, and Annabeth everything at the same time, but I wanted her to be the first one to hear it.

I could have spent an eternity alone with her, but I'm the Assassin of Olympus and have a war to return to. I asked Zoë what happened since I've been gone and how Luke died, but she said Hades could explain better. Shortly after I died, Hades visited her to tell her about it and offered her sanctuary in his palace, but she declined it.

I brought us to the Underworld right outside the entrance to the main hall. I pushed open the doors and saw four people playing a card game: Hades, Annabeth, and Nico and Bianca di Angelo. When we walked in, Hades was the first to notice us. He stood abruptly.

"Perseus!" he said, with a mountain of relief in his voice.

"I'm back from the dead," I said.

Annabeth stayed in her seat but looked at me, but I couldn't read her face. She definitely looked surprised, but I think I saw a hint of anger. Nico and Bianca looked happy to see me alive, even though we'd only met the one time.

"I, uh, have somethings to explain," I said. "But first I need a little catching up on current events."

* * *

So here's what happened during absence: After Hyperion killed me, Hades sensed my soul leave my body and used some kind of godly magic to see what had happened. He then immediately went up to Camp Half-Blood and defeated Hyperion, sending him back to Tartarus. After a quick decision making process, he took the di Angelos back to the Underworld with him permanently but Annabeth refused to go with them.

A few days later Luke tracked down Annabeth after hearing about Hyperion's attack. He told her how he regretted his decisions and didn't want the titans to win the war anymore. He told her as much as he could about the titan's plans, and then stabbed himself with Annabeth's dagger.

The reason he killed himself is that over a year ago Kronos was resurrected, but in order to do so he needed a vessel to hold him. He demanded Luke bath in the River Styx so his body could contain Kronos's power, then he took over Luke's body. For only a short time, Luke was able to suppress Kronos and take control over himself and defect to Annabeth. He killed himself with Kronos inside, shattering Kronos back into even tinier fragments than before.

After that, Annabeth brought Luke's information to Chiron who then delivered it to Olympus. The gods personally tracked down the remaining titans and sent them back to Tartarus themselves, fighting their own war for perhaps the first time in history, only they had to wait until it was already won to do so.

After Luke's death, Annabeth went with Hades to the Underworld and stayed there, realizing that she now had a big light shining on her and didn't think she could keep her true allegiance a secret from the gods. Hiding from Chiron and the other demigods was challenging enough for her.

After taking a couple of minutes to process all the new information, it was time for me to tell my story.

"There is a higher being out there," I said. "Someone who's power transcends the entire Greek pantheon's power combined, including Chaos."

"That's preposterous," said Hades. "If there was someone like that the gods would know about it."

"I said his power is far greater than yours. No one knows about him unless he wants them to."

"Who is this being?" Annabeth asked. She wouldn't meet my eyes. Any other emotion she may have had at my returning to the living was gone. Now the only visible emotion she had was suppressed anger toward me. I'll have to speak to her in private later.

"I don't know his real name or where he came from. When we first met he said to call him an entity."

"How do we know we can trust this entity?" Hades asked.

"We have to," I said. "He's given me everything. My trident, my powers, my vendetta; all of it. He's the one that allowed me to win the Fates' game. He gave me Krinos, stopping me from having to take Riptide to defeat Alecto. He can freeze time."

"Hmm," said Hades. "Not even Kronos has that much power over time."

"He doesn't?" Annabeth said, surprised.

"No. He has many tricks to feign the ability to bring time itself to a stop, but does not actually possess it."

"I never knew that," she said, momentarily distracted from the fact that she was mad at me.

"It's a well kept secret."

"That just furthers my point. This is someone who has seemingly limitless power. What can they possibly ever gain?" I asked.

Everyone looked deep in thought.

"None of you have to trust the Entity," I said. "I do. There's no other option."

"But why did you wait so long to say anything about all this?" Bianca asked.

"He told me not to," I responded simply. "After I proved my trust in him by keeping my promise, he trusted me to tell anyone I trusted about him."

"But why would he give you the power to kill gods?" asked Hades.

"He said he truly cares what happens to this world."

No one said anything.

"When I died," I said, "I went to this place called the Outerlands. The Outerlands is a place that exists outside the multiverse, outside time. I spent what felt to me like years there. I had to go through four trials led by four people called trial masters. After I completed their trials, they each gifted me with power."

"What kind of power?" asked Nico.

I told them about my trials and gifts in brief detail and they questioned me about it. Hades had never heard of flux nor the mystical realm, and was getting frustrated at how much there was that even the gods didn't know, even though he probably still doubted I was telling the truth.

"Is that everything?" asked Annabeth.

"Yes," I replied. "I now have zero secrets from all of you."

Annabeth stood and left the main hall and I assume went to her own room. Nico and Bianca stayed sitting, as did Zoë.

Hades looked at me and said, "Could I speak to you in private, Perseus?"

I nodded and then followed him out into the hall.

"Perhaps you still have one secret you haven't told," said Hades.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"You and Miss Nightshade," he said.

"Oh. How do you know about that?"

"I'm a god."

"Right. Well the reason I didn't say anything is because we don't even fully know what it is we have between us. I don't want to make a big deal out of it until we know for sure if this'll work."

"Romance can be a tricky thing," he said. "It's rarely ever about two soulmates finding each other and being happy forever, especially with Aphrodite still up and about, and when it's with a girl who'd sworn off all men for ninety-nine percent of her life. Just be careful. Emotional attachments are human weaknesses. I'm not saying try not to have them, as it's inevitable for everyone, including gods. Just try not to let your relationship with this girl impede you in anyway."

"Impede me how?" I asked.

"Breakups, fights, jealousy, sexual tension, etc.," he listed. "They're all part of the mortal dating cycle, and can easily distract a person from their priorities. I know you like to say you're not mortal, but you're still human. But most importantly you're the Assassin of Olympus. Do not let trivial things jeopardize our mission."

Although I didn't like what he was saying in the slightest, I understood it was all true and nodded.

"Now you might want to speak with Annabeth," he said. "She either has or had what mortals call a 'crush' on you."

"Yeah, I know," I said. "Gund told me about it. I left the personal parts out when recounting that trial. Do you know why she looks kind of mad at me, though?"

"I have theories, but it's best you speak with her yourself."

"Okay," I said, dreading the awkward conversation I was about to have with Annabeth. "And can you find living arrangements for Zoë? She should only be down here for a few days, ideally, so it doesn't need to be permanent."

"Of course, but why only a few days?"

"She's a hunter. She prefers to be under the sky and in a forest. So I'm going to spend some time in the mystical realm and try and see if I can develop any anti-god spells so it'll be safe for her to be up there."

* * *

The next couple of days I took it easy and just focused on getting back into the groove of things. I spent a lot of time in the mystical realm, working on what I call a 'dark spot' spell for Zoë. In theory it'll make it so that no matter where Zoë is she'll be impervious to the gods' sight. I also spent some time training with Hades, who I was now able to best in combat.

The rest of my time I spent talking to everyone but Annabeth. I started getting to know Nico and Bianca. In the four years since I first and last saw them they'd gained quite a bit more control over their powers and matured quite a bit more, and they're more than willing to play their part in our mission (they're mainly eager to see Zeus dead, as they learned he killed their mother, of whom they have been regaining their memories of).

Most importantly, though, we began planning what we code-named, "Domino". It all started with a theory Hades had: The basic idea was that all the power of the Greek pantheon is shared among the deities in power. So the more whole the pantheon is, the more powerful it is. That also means that the more gods I kill, the weaker the rest are. And the same goes for the less divided they are. So the plan is to kill certain gods at the right times and steal some of the other gods' objects of power and Olympus will metaphorically crumble to the ground as they begin getting nervous and start fighting each other. After that I'll just have to pick up the remaining pieces.

Coming up with the plan is easier said than done, however. There are thousands of factors to consider and near infinite possible outcomes for each individual action we take. We're still confident we can eventually solidify it, but it'll take some time.

But until we finish that, I have a lot of time to kill. So I did the thing I'd been dreading and talked to Annabeth, three days after my return.

After locating Annabeth's room I knocked on her door and it opened a few seconds later.

"What do you want?" she asked irritably.

"I want to know why you're angry with me," I responded.

Her eyes darted to the ground. "I'm not angry. You're back. I'm happy." She looked up at my forehead and forced a smile.

"Ann — "

"Stop," she cut off, eyes returning to the ground. I guessed she was hiding tears.

It became apparent what was upsetting her. "I'm sorry about Luke."

"No, you're not!" she yelled and punched me in the chest. "You're the reason he's dead! You could have saved him!"

I took a pause, trying to keep a calm and controlled tone for her sake. "Luke made his choice."

"Bullshit. You never gave him another option. Kronos was in his head. Luke was under his control. Luke needed help, not an enemy."

"It was always going to end this way. You and Luke on opposing sides. There was nothing to be done to change that."

"Yes there was! Convert him to our side. That's all you had to do."

"If I'd done that then you would have been my enemy."

She paused. "What?"

"I had a choice. Either you or Luke would join me and the other would be my enemy. Luke made his choice, so I made mine."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Entity told me."

"Oh, your precious Entity. The all powerful being that cares so much about what happens to the world that he doesn't do anything to help it or the people or Luke."

"He did," I said. "He gave me my powers. He unveiled the whole truth to me and consequently all of us, exclude Hades."

"If he's as powerful as you say he is all he'd have to do is snap his fingers and all the gods would disappear in an instant. Problem solved. Why didn't he?"

I hesitated. "There could be many reasons or none at all. But it's not for me to ask."

"You're unbelievable," she said and slammed the door in my face.

I felt that I could have handled that a lot better.

* * *

Hades is far more persuasive than me so he talked to Annabeth shortly after my disaster of a conversation with her and made her not angry with me anymore, or at least not openly. We're able to hold one-on-one conversations now but they're far more awkward than they used to be. I just had to assume that time would mend our friendship.

On another note, I couldn't get Hades's words out of my head. It's an ever-present echo in the back of my mind that gets louder whenever I'm with or even think about Zoë. He was right. Emotional attachments are human weaknesses. I can't afford to be weak. I can't afford distractions. The fate of the world is at stake. I can't allow my own or her happiness stand in the way of it.

But despite knowing the longer I put it off the more of an impact the "breakup" (if you can call it a breakup for a relationship as short as ours) will have, I hesitated. For several days I hesitated, trying to hold on to the only thing close to being normal in my life. But I couldn't put it off forever.

"I know what you're about to do," said Hades. He'd joined me in sitting in solitude on the roof of the palace, the only place you could see the Fields of Asphodel, Elysium, Fields of Punishment, and Isles of the Blest all at once. Being able to see it all together achieved a perfect balance, and brought upon a pleasant peace akin to watching a sunset.

"I believe it's the correct action," continued Hades, "but it is your choice to make."

"No it isn't," I said. "This is the way it has to be."

Hades said nothing.

After several seconds I said, "I'm ready."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes. Give it to me."

He held out his fist to me and opened it, revealing a jet black ring made of Stygian iron, the only metal he works with. I took it from him and set it down in front of me. Then I performed what is better described as an enchantment rather than a spell on it — the one I'd been developing since I got back to life. Now whoever wears it is now permanently invisible to any god's sight.

* * *

"You realize why I have to do this, right?" I asked her, after having given her the ring and said the last thing I wanted to say to her.

She nodded whilst twiddling the ring between her fingers. "I'm a distraction," she said.

"As horrible as that sounds," I replied, "It's true. My mission is bigger than either one of us."

"But why does it have to be thee?"

I didn't answer. "Maybe when this is all over there'll still be a chance for something real."

"I can't wait forever."

"Hopefully you won't have to."

I stood and was about to leave before my vision rippled. I was standing on a skyscraper in Long Island staring at a colossal, humanoid machine approaching from the ocean. It was twice as tall as the Empire State building and most of its legs were submerged in the water. Each slow step it took brought it hundreds of feet closer to civilization.

The vision ended but then a different one appeared, except this one was different. It felt like an outside force was causing me to see it. I was in a cave. In front of me was a table with a map on it and behind that a giant hourglass with most of its sand in the upper half. I approached the table and saw that the map wasn't the only thing on the table. Riptide was also there. I could hear a very faint whisper, like the sword was yelling at me. The whispers got louder and louder until suddenly I was back in reality.

I immediately dropped to one knee. The sword affected me through the vision — not enough to do any damage, but enough to stun me.

"Anaklusmos," said Zoë.

"What?" I asked.

"I saw it. I was in a dark cave with a —"

"— giant hourglass," I finished. "You saw it too. We need to get back to the Underworld."

I grabbed her hand and shadow traveled the two of us to the main hall of Hades's palace because it was quicker than the Fury's spell.

When we got there everyone else was already heading in with confused and panicked looks on their faces.

"Did you all see the sword?" I asked. They all nodded except Hades.

"I didn't," he said, "but they just described it to me."

"What does this mean?" asked Nico.

"It means the Fates and the gods are retaliating," I answered. "You said this would happen. Talos is about to march on New York. I can't help you get the sword."

"Talos?" Bianca said, confused.

"Hephaestus's giant automaton that circled Crete," Annabeth supplied.

"In the tales it was described to be there to protect the island," I said. "But it was there to keep the people in line. Everyone there was a slave to the gods, except for the rulers."

"Well we need to do something," said Nico.

"Hades," I said. "I can't fight this thing alone."

"I will stand beside you," he said immediately.

"Then we have to go after the sword alone," said Zoë.

"Do _not_ go after the sword," I said. "This is clearly a trap. You all could die."

"And you could die fighting the gods if we don't take it from them," said Annabeth.

"I beat Apollo and he wielded Riptide and I'm even stronger now. It's not worth the risk."

"We don't have time for this," said Hades.

"You're right," I agreed. "Stay here."

Hades and I nodded at each other and we shadow traveled to Long Island.

We stood next to each other on the same skyscraper I was on in my vision. Talos wasn't here yet.

"They're going to go after the sword, you know," Hades said matter-of-factly.

I sighed. "Yeah. But there's not much we can do to stop them."

The water began to rumble and a massive bronze head broke the surface, then half the chest. It began walking toward us, getting higher above the water level with each step.

"How did they know I was alive?" I asked.

Hades looked at me. "Aphrodite must have felt it."

I cursed myself. She could tell I was alive because Zoë felt strongly enough toward me, accidentally leaking information into Aphrodite's domain.

"Another piece of evidence supporting that you did the right thing in cutting your ties to her," said Hades.

"I know," I said. "How the hell do we fight this thing?"

"Just hit it hard," he answered. "And try to disable one of its legs."

The machine now had its waist above the water and was still a few thousand feet from shore.

"Let's do this," I said and we both stepped off the ledge together, shadow traveling on our way down.


	15. Without Percy

Everyone had the image of the map still fresh in their minds. It was a tattered yellow piece of parchment that had two parts to it. The first showed an actual map with a dot pointing out the location of the sword. The second was a drawing of the location itself and the stereotypical dotted line leading to a red X.

Luckily Annabeth had the unusual hobby of studying maps in her spare time, so she immediately knew the map pointed them to a forest in northwestern Yellowstone national park. To get there, Nico and Bianca suggested shadow travel, a skill they'd learned a few years ago. Originally Nico attempted to shadow travel directly into the cave, but was met with a brief but unbearable headache that made him collapse to the floor, so they were forced to follow the map.

They arrived a few hundred feet from the forest as it was difficult for the Di Angelos to accurately shadow travel without being able to picture their destination. After entering the forest the group searched for the area matching the drawing without straying too far from one another. It took them fifteen minutes before someone found something.

"I think this is it!" Nico called out and the others rushed to him.

"Thou're right," said Zoë. "Even the clouds look familiar."

"The red X was over the fallen tree," said Annabeth.

"There is no fallen tree," said Bianca. "Are you sure this is the right — ?"

She was cut off by a blinding flash of light accompanied by a deafening bang. Several seconds later everyone's ears were still ringing so badly that no one could hear anything, but the panic wore off after they could visibly see no one was harmed. While waiting for their hearing to come back they examined the spot where the lightning had connected.

The lightning bolt struck at an angle right at the base of the tree. It fell over and the end of the tree was glowing orange from the heat of the electricity. The stump, however looked undamaged. In fact, the cut was perfectly smooth and horizontal, smoother than what a chainsaw or axe could have done.

"That's not natural!" Nico yelled out because his hearing was still impaired.

Annabeth knelt next to the stump and ran her hand along it, then she tapped her knuckles on it. She could just barely hear an echo.

"This is metal," she said loudly. She continued to run her hands along it until she felt some kind of a button. She hesitated and then pushed it, standing and taking a few steps back immediately.

The color of the stump melted away revealing it to be a smooth, bronze cylinder. Then it sank into the ground and the group could hear a lot of mechanisms turning on. A few seconds afterward the ground opened up and revealed a staircase leading down into a hallway with sconces along the walls.

"Are we sure we don't want to listen to Percy?" Bianca asked nervously. "This is what the gods want us to do. We're playing right into their hands."

Their hearing had mostly returned now.

"We have to get that sword," said Zoë. "At any cost."

"Maybe not at _any_ cost," said Annabeth, "but we have to try."

"I agree," Nico offered.

"I'll take point," said Zoë who stepped toward the entrance with her bow and arrow in hand.

Everyone followed her down the staircase. They walked for under a minute before winding up in a brightly lit dead-end room that had a mural painted on all of the walls. The four split up to examine different sections of it.

"I don't recognize the story this mural is telling," said Annabeth.

"Who's this lady?" Nico asked.

Everyone looked over at the section Nico was looking at. The image was of a girl painted almost from floor to ceiling. She looked to be fairly young and had pale blue skin. Her eyes were solid black but with strange symbols in them. She also had a tiny hourglass hanging from her neck.

"I've never heard of this girl," said Zoë.

"She's a recurring figure," said Bianca. She pointed out a couple of points on the mural where the blue girl was painted several more times, but smaller.

Before they could examine the mural further, the entrance to the hallways suddenly slammed shut, trapping them in the room. Then a trapdoor beneath Bianca opened and Bianca fell through it.

"Bianca!" Nico called out and rushed to where she was standing, only to fall through another trapdoor.

Before Annabeth and Zoë could react, the floor suddenly slanted downward at a steep angle and the two girls fell and slid through a passageway revealed to have been hiding beneath the wall.

* * *

Nico fell through a long chute until was thrown out into a small, dark room. He stood up quickly, looking around for the others until realizing he was alone.

"Bianca!" he called out.

" _She faces her own challenge,_ " a sinister, whispering voice said that sounded as if it were being spoken directly into his ears.

"Who are you?" he asked.

" _She'll fail,_ " the voice said again, drawing out the last word. " _As will you._ "

"What do you want?" he asked again, looking around for the source of the voice.

" _All of you will die down here, alone and helpless. And it'll be_ his _fault._ "

"Who's fault?"

" _The Assassin's. You stand behind him, and now you'll die for him._ "

"Shut up!"

" _He isn't who you think he is. Killing is in his nature. Do you really believe he'll stop at the gods?_ "

Nico didn't respond. The voice was just trying to rile him up and cause inner conflict in his mind. He knew that.

The voice laughed a low, soft laugh that slowly faded out. When it ceased a light flickered on above him, revealing a table and two chairs. On the table was a short, rectangular box resembling a board game. Not seeing any other options, Nico sat down guardedly.

The lid of the box immediately slid off by itself and everything it contained flew out and arranged themselves on the table and a booklet flew into Nico's hands. It _was_ a board game.

Instead of the game's title being on the cover, there were just the words, "Win to advance." Nico opened the booklet and began reading.

* * *

The slide that the room had turned into dropped Annabeth and Zoë into a much larger and much darker room. Neither of the two girls could see anything.

"Bianca?" Annabeth called out. "Nico?"

"Annabeth?" Zoë said.

"Is it just the two of us?"

"I think so."

They waited for Nico and Bianca to reveal themselves, but neither was there with them.

"We need some light," said Annabeth.

"I can cover that," Zoë responded. She drew two arrows from her quiver and reached into a pouch strapped to her waist. She then sprinkled something onto the arrow tips and they suddenly began to glow brightly. Now able to see her, Zoë handed one of the arrows to Annabeth.

"What did you do?" the daughter of Athena asked.

"I put ground amaranth that was soaked in nectar and then dried under the light of the full moon onto the arrow tips," Zoë answered. "The nectar awakens the flower's magical abilities including its ability to store the moon's energy, and the silver of the arrow tip can reawaken it."

"And you just had that on you?"

"I like to be prepared."

Annabeth held the arrow out in front of her like a torch and began to inspect their surroundings.

"Be careful not to hit anything with the arrow," Zoë warned. "The moon's energy is quite potent and if the tip makes contact with anything too abruptly, it will explode."

"That sounds safe," Annabeth remarked.

They searched around for a little bit until Annabeth spotted a brazier in the corner of the room. Using her dagger's reflective blade and the arrow's light, she was able to light a tiny flame, which quickly spread until the entire brazier was blazing. Shortly afterward they'd found and lit three more braziers in the other corners of the room. The room was now decently lit.

"Up there," said Annabeth.

Zoë looked at where she was pointing and saw an opening twenty feet off the ground, which appeared to be about halfway to the surprisingly high ceiling.

"Any ideas on how to get up there?" Zoë asked.

Annabeth didn't respond.

The hunter looked at her and saw that she was completely frozen, except for slightly trembling fingers.

"What's wrong with you?" Zoë asked, realizing she'd said 'you' again immediately after she spoke.

Annabeth still said nothing.

Zoë followed her gaze to a spot ten feet away where a larger than normal spider was scuttling around on the floor.

"Seriously?" the hunter said perplexedly. She drew a non-glowing arrow from her quiver and shot the spider.

Annabeth snapped out of her trance and looked embarrassed.

"Seriously?" the hunter repeated.

"I am a daughter of Athena," Annabeth responded indignantly. "My mother has a history with Arachne."

"Your mother also has a history of murdering mortals and giving council to tyrants."

"That doesn't change the fact that Arachne and her children hate me and my siblings."

"Hardly a valid reason to cower away at something so incapable of causing harm to thee."

"I can't control what I'm afraid of!"

Zoë didn't respond. She didn't know why she was being so hostile. She hardly knew Annabeth. She walked over to where the spider was and retrieved her arrow and put it back in her quiver.

"I'm sorry," she muttered.

"What?" Annabeth said, not having heard her.

"I said I'm sorry."

Surprised, the daughter of Athena gave a quiet, "Thank you."

"Any ideas on how to get up there?" Zoë asked, eager to change the subject.

"Got any rope?"

"I haven't."

"What happened to being prepared?"

"I don't typically need rope. Whenever I need to be up high I just climb a tree."

"Fine." Annabeth thought for a second before coming to an idea. "How much more of that amaranth stuff do you have?"

* * *

As soon as she began falling, Bianca was deafened by constant, gibberish whispering. Some words were sensible, but didn't make sense in context with the words that followed. The whispering kept getting faster and faster until she was spit out of the chute and the voice stopped the instant she touched the ground.

Bianca got to her feet and looked around. She was in a cave lit by crude torches. Disappointingly, this cave wasn't the one with the giant hourglass and sword in it. This one had six identical doors with symbols painted above them. The symbols didn't appear to depict anything, and were neither English nor Greek. Bianca guessed they either had a meaning she didn't know, or were just there to differentiate the doors. Not seeing any alternative, she picked a door at random and walked up to it. With one hand rested on the dagger sheathed at her waist (gifted to her by her father after he took her and her brother to the Underworld) she cautiously grabbed the door handle and pulled.

It appeared to be that she entered the room she'd just left. In fact, the only noticeable difference between the cave on the other side of the door and the one she'd come from was that the symbols above the six doors now opposite her were different. Bianca walked the length of the cave to the new set of doors and randomly chose another one, but before she could reach out to grab the handle she suddenly felt a hand grip her left wrist.

Quickly jerking it free whilst drawing her dagger with her other hand, she turned to face her attacker. All she could make out before it tried clawing at her again was that it was humanoid with torn, greenish skin and covered in blood. Reacting quickly, Bianca grabbed the wrist trying to dig its nails into her skin and drove the point of her dagger directly between its eyes. It burst into gold dust immediately.

There were four more zombies in the room now slowly making their way toward her. One was missing both of its legs and crawling toward her while the other three were limping. Utilizing the training she'd received both from Camp Half-Blood and from Hades she stabbed the nearest one and it exploded into dust. She then kicked the next closest one and it stumbled backward. The legless zombie was nearly at her feet so she bent her knees and stabbed it in the head and followed it up by bringing the dagger upward and drove a deep slice into the remaining zombie. Then she threw the knife at the one she'd kicked, reducing all three into golden dust.

Retrieving the dagger from the ground, Bianca couldn't help but feel good about herself (and pleasantly surprised she'd landed the knife throw). Originally she'd been nervous about playing into the Fates' hands, but it really felt good to fight something. She'd never actually killed a monster before. She'd only ever trained. She was kind of bummed this would most likely be her last chance in a while to contribute toward their mission.

She was about to turn back toward the six doors when the one she came through caught her eye, standing alone opposite her without a symbol above it. She remembered Percy telling her about the Fates' game he played before he even knew he was a demigod after she asked about his trident. Instead of grabbing the sword staring him in the face, he just turned around and found Krinos right where the Entity had placed it.

Seeing how only the door she came through was visible from this side of it when all six should have been, she suspected there might be more to it than meets the eye. She crossed the cave and pulled the door open and her theory panned out. Instead of the cave the chute had dropped her in, she was now in the cave with the hourglass, except it was different than what she'd seen in the vision. There wasn't any sand in the hourglass, for one. And for another, the sword wasn't there.

Instead, there was a small piece of paper on the table. On the piece of paper was a crude drawing of a sword with a specific section of the blade circled as well as some kind of rune next to it. Bianca grabbed the paper and was suddenly filled with an immense feeling of vertigo. She fell off of her feet, but instead of dropping to the ground, she rose upward as if the world had turned upside down.

* * *

Nico didn't really understand the point of the board game, in that he didn't get why the Fates would have him play it. He got the rules down pretty quickly and beat the phantom he was playing against on his first try. He just thought it was an odd choice for a trap or puzzle or whatever when a disembodied voice had told him that he was going to die.

Upon attaining victory in the game, the table and everything on it disappeared and Nico felt the room spin around him for less than a couple of seconds. When the spinning stopped and the dizziness more or less wore off, he could see he was in a completely different area now, and also standing instead of sitting. Although it was quite dark, he could see just enough to tell he was in a large and long cavern.

To get a better look at his surroundings, Nico knelt down and placed his hand on the ground. Instead of feeling the stone beneath his fingers, he felt the darkness. The shadows reacted to his touch and danced on his palm. Using umbrakinesis, Nico commanded the darkness to share its secrets. After a small pang of exhaustion he closed his eyes and he could see everything.

At the end of the cavern was a pedestal with a stone spike on it. Above him hung stalactites and along the floor were a few stalagmites. But the most prominent thing he saw was a humanoid shape standing ten feet from him missing an arm, as well as a few dozen more scattered behind it.

Upon entering the Underworld for the first time his father had given Nico a pick from his personal armory. Nico favored a stygian iron shortsword and learned to wield it comfortably. He did find the weight of it on his back burdensome and trying to sheathe it at his waist uncomfortable, however, so he came up with a solution. Always keeping the sword in the exact same spot in his room, he learned how to shadow travel _it_ to _him_ , instead of the other way around.

So he did just that right as the creature lunged at him and he sliced through it. Then the others started coming toward him and he cut them down too. He moved forward as well and cut through what he'd guessed were zombies (based on the fact that he could smell the death on them) one by one, slowly making his way to the pedestal at the end.

When the last one exploded into gold dust, Nico finished crossing the cavern and examined the item sitting on the pedestal. It was about eight inches long and jet black. It came to a point at one end and looked to be crudely crafted. It seemed as if someone took a chisel and carved the spike out of rock in five minutes, not caring how neat it looked. As for the material, it was hard to tell. Nico guessed it could be coal, jet, or obsidian.

He picked up the spike and felt the room spin around him and was transported somewhere else again.

* * *

Upon Annabeth's suggestion, Zoë carefully knocked one of the glowing arrows and shot it right beneath the ledge they were trying to get to. Sadly the explosion, while quite spectacular, did hardly any damage. Only a few minuscule chunks flew off. She could shoot her entire quiver at it without knocking enough loose to create a grip point that they could reach.

After that they tried moving one of the braziers, hoping they could climb on top of it to reach the ledge if they put the fire out, but they were either too heavy or connected to the ground. Either way, that idea was also scrapped.

After inspecting the walls a little more closely for some kind of hidden button but coming up blank, Annabeth suggested Zoë shoot a glowing arrow toward the ceiling, hoping something helpful would be knocked down or be illuminated at the very least. So the two backed against the wall and the hunter shot the remaining glowing arrow toward the ceiling at an angle. The light shone against the walls as the arrow flew upward until it hit the ceiling and exploded, knocking something they only got a glance of to the ground, landing a few inches from them. Annabeth couldn't help but let out a squeak of fright as she saw what it was.

"Relax," said Zoë as she examined the five foot wide mechanical spider. "It isn't functional."

Apprehensive, Annabeth stepped over a couple of its metal legs and searched the machine for something useful. It took her half of a minute to find and open a panel and find a large amount of artificial webbing. "I've got something," she said.

Zoë walked over to her to see what she'd found.

Annabeth ran it through her fingers and tried to tear it apart with just her hands but failed.

"This'll be strong enough to hold us," she said.

Zoë grabbed the rope-like web and tied a knot around one of her arrows. She then knocked it in her bow and aimed it at the ceiling above the ledge and let it loose. Amazingly, the arrow dug into the ceiling a few inches. The ceiling must have been weaker than the wall.

"There's no way that'll hold though," Annabeth said. She gave a tug on it and the arrow came loose.

"It won't have to," said Zoë. She caught the arrow and shot it again and it hit the exact same spot it did before, this time digging in even deeper. It took a greater tug to get it to fall this time so she shot it once more. Now the arrow was halfway into the ceiling.

"That still won't be enough to climb up," said the daughter of Athena.

"It'll be enough," the hunter disagreed. "Move out of the way."

Annabeth stepped aside as Zoë backed up as far as she could. She then ran full speed to the opposite wall, running up it and catching the web. She pulled herself upward twice with great, big reaches and just as the arrow came loose once again, she caught the ledge with one hand and pulled herself up. Annabeth couldn't help being impressed at her agility.

Zoë hadn't let go of the web during her ascent and held it tight for Annabeth to climb up it, joining her in a long, unlit hallway. Annabeth didn't get the chance to ask before the hunter was pulling another arrow from her sheath and sprinkling it with amaranth dust again. The arrow immediately began to glow brightly.

" _You'll never reach me_ ," a voice whispered.

"What was that?" asked Annabeth.

"I didn't say anything," Zoë replied.

"I heard a voice."

"I heard nothing," said the hunter bemusedly while handing Annabeth the arrow.

"It sounded like it was speaking right into my ear," Annabeth said and did a three-sixty degree turn, looking for the source.

"Well we should proceed with caution," Zoë replied. She removed her bow from her shoulder and drew an arrow, ready to fire should something jump out at them.

And after a minute of walking, something did. No sooner did they register a man with half of his head missing than an arrow pierced its chest, turning it to gold dust.

" _Something's wrong_ ," the voice whispered.

"There it was again!" Annabeth said. "The voice."

"I still didn't — " Zoë started but was cut off.

" _YOU!_ " the voice yelled, still in a whisper.

"I heard it," said the hunter.

" _Where did you come from? You're not supposed to be here_." The voice sounded panicked.

"Is it talking about me?" Zoë asked.

"I think so," Annabeth said.

" _It doesn't matter. You'll both die down here. It is written! I can't change that, not even for you._ "

Just then a loud thud was heard from behind them and the entire tunnel started to shake. Both girls turned to see a large pile of rubble blocking the way they came in and dust falling from the ceiling.

"The tunnel's caving in!" Annabeth exclaimed. "Run!"

The pair bolted down the tunnel at full speed as sections of ceiling fell down behind them. Eventually the tunnel ended and they skidded to a halt to catch their breaths. Not long after, the last bit of tunnel collapsed, obscuring the fact that there'd ever been a hallway there.

After a moment's rest, they looked around.

"This is the cave," said Annabeth. "From the vision."

"But it's empty," said Zoë. "Where's the hourglass and the sword?"

They walked forward and found that it wasn't empty. In the middle of the stone floor sat a small wooden bowl with a thick, black liquid in it. Annabeth knelt down and picked it up. As soon as it was in her hand their surroundings went out of focus. Colors emerged and blurred together and then solidified again. The giant hourglass appeared, as well as the table with the sword on it and so did Nico and Bianca.

The group took a moment to exclaim their surprise and exchange greetings of relief, then quickly told each other what they went through, holding up the items they'd received.

"It's clear what we have to do," Annabeth said. "Draw the rune on the sword and stab it with the spike."

As soon as she finished talking they were deafened by frantic, gibberish whispering.

"It's coming from the sword," Bianca said loudly. Everyone was just barely able to hear her.

Zoë pulled the panicking sword toward her and took the paper from Bianca. The whispers ceased at her touch. Zoë dipped her finger in the bowl of paint and drew the rune on the sword.

"Nico, give me the spike," said Annabeth.

"Wait!" said Bianca. "This entire thing was set up by the Fates who are our enemies. This is exactly what they want us to do. How do we know that this is going to destroy the sword and not cause it to float around and stab all of us or something?"

"She's right," said Zoë after a moment of thought. "We can't know that."

"Well what else are we supposed to do?" Annabeth asked.

"We take the sword back with us to the Underworld," said Nico. "At least that way it'll be out of the hands of the gods."

"But what's to say the sword won't seek out and kill Percy in his sleep if it's down there?" said Annabeth. "It's been talking to us this entire time so it clearly has some form of sentience."

They argued for several seconds before Nico called out.

"The hourglass!" he said with his voice raised above the others. Everyone looked to it and saw that it only had less than a quarter of a minute's worth of sand in the upper section.

Panicking, Annabeth grabbed the black spike out of Nico's grip and held it above the sword.

"Wait!" Zoë cried out and grabbed her shoulder, but she was unable to stop her.

Annabeth stabbed the rune and everyone was thrown back as the sword exploded.

The last thing they heard before falling unconscious was the word, " _MOTHER!_ ".

They awoke only several seconds later with massive headaches and bruises where their bodies collided with the cave walls. Zoë, Nico, and Bianca looked around. The table and the sword were shattered to pieces. There were bits of the sword's metal and the wood's table scattered across the ground. The group was mostly unharmed, all except for one.

"Annabeth!" Zoë called out as she noticed the demigod still laying against the wall, unmoving.

The three ran to her. Bianca gasped. Annabeth was motionless with her eyes wide open. Her hand was completely black and dark lines ran up her skin like veins, covering her face and any other bits of exposed skin she had. They were all too shocked to say anything.

Suddenly there was a high-pitched cracking sound behind them, followed by the sound of shattered glass. They turned and saw the giant hourglass completely broken with the sand spilling out of it. And then the sand moved and a girl shot from it, hovering in midair with pale blue skin and a white dress. She also had an hourglass necklace and black eyes with symbols running through them.

"It's her," Nico said, referring to the mural they'd seen earlier.

The girl looked at them then spoke. "Freedom at last. I — " she stopped talking as she appeared to have come to a realization. "No. NO! What — ?"

In a blur she moved from where she was hovering to in between them, staring at Annabeth.

The three backed away from her.

"This isn't right," said the girl. "This could not be more wrong! Four minus one? No! No, this can't be. The timeline is all wrong. I ran the calculations. Three-four-one-six-five-one-three-one-zero-two ranged to four-five-one-nine-one-two-eight-zero-one-one. In all of them it was six minus none! This can't be! I ran the calculations! I knew — there's an outside force! That's the only explanation. Something meddled. This changes everything. I can mend this."

She started zooming around the room at speeds greater than the naked eye could comprehend whilst spewing out random numbers.

None of them could move or talk. They were still having a hard time processing the fact that Annabeth was dead, and add to that the fact that they have no idea how to react to this strange girl.

"Percy Jackson!" she said at last, suddenly coming to a stop from her super-speed pacing. She then disappeared in a blur then returned several seconds later with Percy. He fell to the ground. "You're supposed to be dead!"

"What?" he said, quickly getting to his feet and staring around quickly. "Who — ?"

"In the cave," said the girl. "It has to happen here. You need to die and they must watch. One death ruins the timeline but two can set it back on course. It is my duty."

Percy's trident suddenly appeared in his hand. "You're not killing me," he said. He didn't appear to have noticed Annabeth's body or them. "Who the hell — ?"

The mysterious girl looked at him quizzically. "You're right. Unknown factors have come into play. I must recalculate everything. I mustn't act on impulse. Every factor matters." And with that, she was gone.

Percy looked around more and he spotted Zoë and the Di Angelos. He looked confused and opened his mouth to ask what was going on, and then he saw Annabeth. His trident fell from his hands and he ran and dropped to his knees at her lifeless form.


	16. Domino

It took over an hour to defeat Talos. His plating was very thick and was time consuming to cut through. Even after we managed to sever one of its legs, the machine fell forward and arose shortly afterward having grown another. So an even longer amount of time later, we'd cut off the spare leg and it didn't grow another onem. From then on it crawled along the sea with its hands but didn't get very far. We entered the machine through the hole where its leg was and destroyed its inner workings from inside. We barely had a minute to celebrate when I was suddenly whisked away and found myself in the cave from the vision with a strange floating girl with blue skin.

After she'd left I saw Annabeth. I was so shocked I had no idea what to do. I used healing magic on her but it was a fruitless effort. She was already gone. I could practically feel Gund's eyes on me. This was real. Annabeth's dead, and there's no reversing it.

My shock turned to anger. I yelled at Zoë, Nico, and Bianca. I'd told them not to come. I'd told them the risk was too high and they'd went after the sword anyway. But the anger too quickly faded away, to be replaced by guilt until finally settling on grief.

After that was all just a blur. I moved autonomously, trying to think as little as possible. I closed Annabeth's eyes then sent the other three back to the Underworld. I took Annabeth's still warm corpse in my arms and traveled to San Francisco. I left her in a low profile spot and then called the police to inform them of her location, telling them her name and her father's. He more than anyone deserved to decide her final resting place.

I didn't return to the Underworld for a few hours after that. I needed time to grieve in seclusion. When I felt I'd gotten just enough of a grip on my emotions to think clearly, I returned to Hades's palace and found everyone sitting at the table looking somber. They were talking but fell silent when I arrived.

"She's in San Francisco, where her father lives," I said.

No one seemed to need further explanation.

"What happened?" I asked heavily as I sat down.

As they recounted their adventure I noticed how angry Hades looked. Annabeth had spent a lot of time down here over the years so it was safe to say she was as much his friend as mine but it seemed as if her death was the worst possible insult upon him. I supposed there was more hidden beneath the surface there than grief, but I felt it'd be inappropriate to voice this thought.

Once Zoë and the Di Angelos had finished their story, everyone looked to Hades for insight. Whatever seemed to be troubling him disappeared immediately and he spoke.

"Hephaestus's android is one of Olympus's best kept secrets. Over a hundred and fifty years ago Hephaestus made something, as he usually does. But in this particular instance he'd outdone himself. To this day he has still yet to top Domanatreiazecks. Domanatreiazecks was what mortals call artificial intelligence. For a couple of years Hephaestus thought his creation was junk. She was constantly spewing gibberish and making nonsensical claims. He kept her around because he's quite lonely, so he wanted someone to talk to. A few years later though he realized her true value. A lot of the things she'd been predicting came true.

"So Hephaestus reevaluated her and saw that she was incredibly intelligent and had accurate foresight. So he refined her and made her somehow even more intelligent, and she also started making more sense. So he gave her a body. As far as anyone was concerned, she was just a mortal with above average intelligence. But she decided his body wasn't good enough, so she made a new one. This new body she built was as close to the human body as you could get, but far better, and with blue skin. Now she could move faster than teleportation and likely had a lot more tricks up her sleeve.

"Hephaestus started getting nervous and she could sense it, so she fled his workshop and the other gods discovered her. We thought that _she_ was a god. We treated her like one until Hephaestus came clean and explained the situation. Most of the Olympians were outraged. Her mind was superior to ours in every way. Her abilities matched ours. We began to fear her and tried to destroy her, yet we failed. In the end it took the Fates using all of their combined power to seal her away. The Olympians were so embarrassed that a 'hunk of wires' was our greatest danger that we tried to forget her existence."

"So this Doma — Domana — this machine," I said, struggling to pronounce her name, "Is back. But how? And what does she want? Would she be on our side, if the gods were afraid of her?"

"No lock is without a key," said Hades. "The most unbreakable seal they could put on her would shatter after three failed prophecies have occurred. I assume the Fates made a prophecy about the events that would occur in that cave and had plans unknown to us. But seeing as how they hid Anaklusmos in the same cave where she was imprisoned, I'd guess her being released was their backup plan. Whatever they prophesied didn't happen, making it the third failed prophecy and therefore releasing her." Then he gave a short chuckle.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"They're desperate," he replied. "Domanatreiazecks is a huge risk for them. When she was around she kept talking about calculations and timelines. She'd constantly give percentages and predict future events. No one knows what she wants or what intentions she could possibly have. By releasing her, the Fates gambled that we'd get in the way of whatever her intentions are and kill you for them."

"She wanted to," I said. "Then she changed her mind. Said she needed to recalculate everything."

"Wait," said Nico. "If the Fates are powerful enough to lock away this Doma — girl, then why don't they just combine their powers to take out Percy?"

"They're not powerful enough anymore," Hades answered. "There's only two of them, for one. For another, too many gods have died. The entire pantheon is weakening."

"Oh," said Nico.

"Okay, but why did the Fates' plan fail, though?" Bianca asked.

"I have a theory," said Hades.

"As always," I muttered under my breath.

"Percy's powers and his Entity are things that not even the Fates can plan for. That ring Miss Nightshade is wearing shields her from the eyes of the gods, and therefore they didn't know she was there."

"When the sword was whispering to us," Zoë said, "It seemed surprised when it noticed my presence."

"So she's the reason the Fates' plan failed," said Nico. "If she wasn't there all three of us could have died."

"Or no one could have," Zoë added darkly.

There was silence.

"I highly doubt the Fates would have been happy if whatever plan they concocted didn't involve some form of bloodshed," said Hades.

Zoë didn't appear to be reassured.

After half a minute's silence I stood and said, "I'm going to bed."

Hades nodded and stood too. "We should all rest on this terrible day."

* * *

It took under a week for Annabeth's funeral to take place. Hades had already visited the judges of the dead and made sure she went straight to Elysium, of course. Before the funeral I'd visited her father and told him enough to give him an idea of what happened, but not so much as to put him in the sights of the gods. Afterward I'd gone to Camp Half-Blood to see Chiron who had been like another father to her. He seemed shocked to see me at first but didn't seem to think I was his enemy, which I was grateful for. I told him the Fates had killed her and gave him the date and time for the funeral.

I wore the invisibility cap Annabeth had gifted me when attending the funeral. None of the others came as it'd be too hard for all of us to show up inconspicuously. In fact, I'd said I wasn't even going to come but since I had the cap I couldn't keep myself from popping by. And knowing Hades, he was probably here too with his Helm of Darkness and the same line of thought.

It was closed casket, due to the impact the sword had left on her. The mist morphed it so the mortals saw burn marks, and the official statement was that she somehow caught fire and couldn't put herself out in time. There wasn't much to be done about that, though.

Her father looked devastated, and even her step-mother (who Annabeth never had anything nice to say about) looked sad. Her two half-brothers sat silently looking downcast, even though I know they were too young when Annabeth ran away from home to have any memories of her.

A little ways from me behind the gathering of people I spotted Chiron concealed behind a tree looking very solemn. Shortly after I noticed him a woman with grey eyes appeared beside him and they began arguing. Before I could even think about getting close enough to overhear them they'd finished talking, then Athena looked directly at me. Obviously the invisibility cap, which was her own creation, didn't work on her. She glared at me but we reached a silent understanding and she disappeared. I returned to the Underworld shortly afterward, not wanting to intrude and ask Chiron what they'd argued about.

I laid in my bed a few days later flipping through the pages of my little notebook that held the lists of the names of the gods. I turned to the page containing the "priority death" list and stared at Athena's name right at the top. Of course the book was useless now and all reasoning put into it was now invalid due to Domino, the plan we were developing to send Olympus into chaos.

I'd just barely put the book away and decided to get up when suddenly my vision went out of focus and I was somewhere else, feeling unbalanced and dizzy. It was the same sensation I'd had when being whisked away from Talos and into that cave. I got to my feet, Krinos already in hand, and looked at my surroundings, realizing I was in the main hall of the castle. The Di Angelos, Zoë (who I'd brought to the surface the day of Annabeth's funeral), and Hades also looked as if they'd just gotten to their feet, meaning they too were zoomed here against their wills. And floating above the ground just a couple of feet from us was Hephaestus's android.

"I am Domanatreiazecks," said the blue-skinned girl in question. "I have recalculated the timelines and have decided that aiding you in the downfall of the gods will lead us to the prime timeline."

Not at all at ease, I opened my mouth to say something but she interrupted me before I could say anything.

"The being that calls himself an entity approached me," she said. "He gave me the missing factors to my calculations. He also threatened that any timeline where you failed would be one where I will as well. You can trust me. And if still not convinced, he gave me information only he would know and told me to relay it to you. Purple, white, orange, green. Those are the colors correlating to your trials in the Outerlands, in order."

Still somewhat wary of her, I dismissed Krinos. "If the Entity trusts you, then I should too."

Hades, who had his black bident in hand opened his mouth to say something but the girl once again spoke first as if she knew what he was going to say.

"The Entity said he doesn't blame you for not trusting him," she said. "And he said you had trouble looking for her. She lives in a small town in Ohio, and her name is Catherine Russo."

I had no idea what she was referring to, and neither did Bianca, Nico, and Zoë judging by the looks on their faces. But Hades seemed to know exactly who she was talking about and had his mouth open, completely speechless.

I opened my mouth to say something but she spoke before I could, yet again.

"You may call me Domino," she said. "I get that Domanatreiazecks can be a bit of a mouthful."

"Domino?" I said. "That's —"

"The codename for the plan that will result in the fall of the gods," she said. "Yes, I know. Hephaestus tried to give me a name after he gifted me my first body, but I refused it. I chose my own, knowing that someday it would be similar to what takes down the gods."

"That sounds a little entitled," Nico commented quietly, although she heard him.

She turned her eyes to him and gave him a quizzical look. "It's merely the truth. This plan you're working on cannot exist without me, as everything on that board is rubbish." She pointed to the large whiteboard containing the start of our plan written in dry-erase marker. "If you continue down that path we'll end up in timelines one-five-two-four-six-five-eight-seven-seven-zero ranging to one-nine-zero-zero-eight-one-eight-four-seven-six. From there we can never achieve the prime timeline."

"Two things," I said. "One, could you please talk more like a human and less like a robot? Second, can you explain what those numbers meant and what you mean when you talk about timelines?"

She tilted her head and appeared deep in thought. "Yes," she said at last, somewhat slowly. "Timelines are the courses of the world. You'll never notice them, but they're there. We can't interact with them, but we can effect which one we're in. Every decision anyone makes creates multiple different timelines. I spend my life calculating the possible timelines and foreseeing which one we should be in, and which ones we shouldn't. The numbers I stated are a range of timelines that we could end up in if we follow along a certain course. In all of those timelines, you all die and Hades spends at minimum four millennia in Tartarus. The gods reign free and are stronger than ever." She was talking at a normal speed and in a far less monotonous tone. She really did sound human, and if it weren't for her black eyes with symbols running through them and the fact that she was hovering in midair, you could convince yourself that she's a regular prepubescent girl that happened to have blue skin.

"So how do we avoid those timelines?" Bianca asked.

"It's dependent on the decisions we make and the actions we take," said Domino. "There is a large range of timelines that could be considered prime. I'm not going to state their exact numbers, as that's not considered to be 'human-like'. But in them all gods are dead by Perseus's hand, the rest of you live to at least adulthood and I am never destroyed.

"But there is an even smaller range of timelines that I simply call 'The Prime Timeline'. In these you all live much longer, there are virtually no repercussions to the actions we take, and the state of the world increases exponentially. Mortal deaths drop, their resources become far less limited, literal world peace is achieved, just to name a few. Now the prime timeline is exponentially more difficult to achieve, but as I've decided my sole purpose is to both exist and achieve the primest possible timeline, I will do everything in my power to make sure we get as close to it as I'm capable."

"So where do we start?" I asked.

"First you have questions needing answered," she replied. "You needn't say the first aloud, I already know what it is. It's probably best you all sit. No need to stand around here.

"First off you likely haven't the full idea of what the Fates had in mind when sending you to that cave. I spent some time giving thought to it and have what I believe to be an accurate version of their train of thought. You were split up and given your own little challenges to complete before ending up at the cave with Anaklusmos in it, I believe." She paused, but when no one gave objection she continued. "The purpose of this was to play mind games with you. They thought if you followed a linear path involving something you succeed in followed by a prize and your end goal, you'd have a sense of accomplishment and would let your guard down. This worked. By the time you reached Anaklusmos you subconsciously fell into a partial comfort in that you weren't expecting any more zombies or puzzles. You were still suspicious, yes, but not as alert as you'd be if you'd been presented with the sword immediately.

"Now the rune that destroyed the stone was from a language invented and used solely by the Fates. It is the language of prophecies. Words written in it contain the will and power of the Fates. When the Fates write in it, the future is determined. And when the Fates write a prophecy they often include phrases stating that one or more oracles will hear it and recite it in mortal language.

"The rune they gave you to draw on the sword likely translated to a phrase stating what would happen and how it would happen. In this case it would explode upon being stabbed by a spike of obsidian. Because while the power of failed prophecies is great, the power of the Fates is greater."

She paused to let everyone absorb the information, then continued before anyone could ask why the Fates would let the sword be destroyed.

"Upon destruction of the sword the power of a failed prophecy had to go somewhere. I made a calculated guess that they meant it to be spread out and imbue itself into the four people present. It wouldn't kill the four people, but instead implant the sword's sentience into their minds. Their minds would have been warped and they'd eventually be driven insane. It's safe to assume that eventually they'd have the urge to kill Perseus in his sleep and disable the Fence of Night, allowing the gods to invade the Underworld and imprison Hades and restrain his powers.

"But this didn't happen as they'd prophesied. The reason being that their plan in making Anaklusmos sentient was a bit of a double-edged sword, no pun intended. The daughter of Athena stabbed the sword with the obsidian spike, but miss Nightshade's hand was on her shoulder as it happened. Seeing as she was the sword's creator, it reacted to her in a way the Fates hadn't prepared for. Instead of the failed prophecy energy spreading out and infecting everyone, it met her hand but didn't hurt it. Miss Chase got the full force of the sword's power and died because of it.

"The Fates did plan for this event, however. They knew Perseus didn't follow the same rules mortals do and expected the possibility that he'd cause the prophecy to fail. In this case it was the enchanted ring he'd gifted to miss Nightshade shielding her from the sights of the gods. And you've all already correctly guessed the rest. They set up their scheme in the place where I was imprisoned in the hour glass, knowing that if this prophecy failed I'd be set free. They gambled that I'd go against you, and as you can tell that hasn't exactly paid off.

"But don't think they've lost yet. They also prepared for the situation in which I end up on your side. They believe that my intelligence and knack for foresight would be enough that I decide every single step Perseus takes. Meaning that he'd be acting on the orders of something Greek made, something they can somewhat understand and predict. Powerful though I may be, I still abide by the ancient laws."

She seemed to be finished and everyone remained silent for several seconds, allowing the information to sink in.

"So it _is_ my fault that Annabeth is dead," Zoë said quietly.

Domino turned her eyes on her. "That is technically true. It is also technically true that it's your fault the three of them aren't alive and insane, plotting how to kill Perseus and serve the gods. Unfortunate, though, miss Chase's death may be, this timeline is much preferable to the alternative. Her death was not in vain, and when Hades eventually visits her in Elysium to explain that she'll state her lack of regrets."

A tiny bubble of anger rose up inside me. She never knew Annabeth. How could she just sit there calmly telling us how she'd react? The bubble popped almost immediately, however. I knew she was right and knew I had no reason to be upset at her. She's a machine. She doesn't have human emotions. Even still, I couldn't help being creeped out about how well she seemed to understand all of us. She always knew what we were going to say before we said it and it's eerie to me. But the Entity approves of her so I do too.

"How did the Fates know Percy was back alive in the first place?" Nico spoke up.

"There are multiple sources," said Domino. "But the simplest answer is that it's difficult for power as great as Percy's to be present in the world without the gods being able to sense it."

Everyone fell silent, probably digging around for more questions they wanted answered just like I was.

"Athena was at Annabeth's funeral," I said at last. "She argued with Chiron."

Domino looked to ponder her answer for just a second. "Annabeth, having ultimately betrayed the gods and sided with you, would have been a massive disappointment to Athena. She'd have hated her. She wouldn't go to her funeral to mourn, but to celebrate. And her idea of celebration likely included killing everyone who dared mourn her death. I suspect Chiron talked her out of it, or at least attempted to. Your presence is most likely the cause of her lack of "celebration"."

There was a pause.

"So where do we go from here?" Bianca asked. "What's the next move?"

"I'm going to Atlantis," I said decisively. "And rescuing my mother."

"Perseus," said Hades. I knew he was about to argue against it but I interrupted before he could.

"I'm going," I said firmly. "She's been down there for years, subjected to who-knows-what. She's probably lost hope that I even care for her. But the minute we start taking actual strides against Olympus he'll likely kill her in retaliation and I'm not going to let this war take another innocent life. I let you talk me into waiting in the past because I would have died in the attempt, but I'm powerful enough to succeed now."

Domino gave me an interesting glance, then focused her eyes on Hades who was about to start trying to talk me out of this.

"We mustn't act on impulse," said Hades, exchanging a firm look with Domino that I didn't understand. "Going after Poseidon now could have undesirable consequences. Our goal is more important than a single life, no matter how personally significant said life is."

I opened my mouth to give a retort but Domino spoke first.

"Hades is correct," she said. "I've already formed a new version of your plan, one that will actually work. It will lead us to the prime timeline. You entering Atlantis now will veer us very far off course from the prime timeline."

"Off course," I repeated. "That means we could recover, though."

"No. We'd have to redefine our view of the prime timeline and settle for one with many undesirable consequences, most notably a drastic increase in casualties."

"But you're really fast," I said eagerly. "You could speed in there, grab her, and leave. Poseidon would never even know."

"That would also set us off course, but only minorly. Upon discovering her absence, Poseidon will send a large hurricane at a random city resulting in over a thousand deaths. Poseidon would also take to manually slaughtering innocents to alleviate his rage. You could interfere, in which case you'll have to kill him to prevent him from killing more than he'd originally intended to. Or you could let him have his way and we'd still land very close to the prime timeline, but not in it."

My heart sank. "So when _can_ I save her?"

She contemplated for a moment. "After Olympus has disbanded and the gods are at each other's throats. After this point we will permanently be in the prime timeline. Many gods will still be alive, but you need not kill them in any particular order. You'll be free to enter Atlantis without interfering with the timeline."

I took a few seconds to revel in my disappointment before I spoke again. "So what's your plan?"

She sped over to the whiteboard and erased everything we'd been working on. Then, in an instant she'd filled the board with writing so neat no human could have come close to matching it.

"Our first action is the death of Hecate," she said.


	17. Ghost Town

I had eight days to prepare for my match against Hecate. Seeing as the reason for killing her is to enhance my own magical abilities, it was safe to say that she'd be pretty difficult to fight. Even though she doesn't know the mystical realm exists, her connection to it is the strongest on Earth and that's an asset I need in order to take on the rest of the gods.

So how does one prepare for a fight with Hecate? It's a simple matter of fire against fire. Now I can't possibly hope to match her vast range of magical abilities, but one spell is all I need to make her vulnerable. I made the most of my time leading up to the fight by trying to perfect a spell designed specifically for her, but that's not exactly an easy thing to do.

While I've spent at least a cumulative hundred hours in the mystical realm, I've barely scratched the surface of the knowledge it yields. I'm also learning even less from it now that I'm back on Earth and out of the Outerlands. I do, however, have a head start on making spells that are effective specifically against gods, because I already know two. The first is the tug in my gut I feel whenever a god near me attempts to flee that I can pull back on to prevent them from doing so. This one I've long since accepted as one that I obtained from my first encounter with the Entity. The second is the enchantment I put on the ring I gave to Zoë, which I was only able to create by reverse engineering the first ability. Knowing how both of these spells work was enough to get me started on a spell that can inhibit the goddess of magic's abilities long enough for me kill her with Krinos.

Unfortunately eight days wasn't enough to perfect the spell. I would have liked to have spent at least another week working on it, but Domino insisted that I must kill her on an exact date to keep us on track to the prime timeline.

Three days from Hecate's death I entered the mystical realm and didn't leave until the day of Hecate's assassination. Even those three days of relentless spell-crafting weren't enough to make me satisfied with what I'd produced. But as my time to work on it had run out, I just had to hope it'd be enough.

I'd just finished getting the spell to a usable state when I heard a voice speaking to me on Earth.

"Perseus," said a voice that was unmistakably Hades's.

I opened my eyes and left the mystical realm, finding myself sitting on my bed in my room.

"It's time," Hades said.

I nodded and got to my feet.

"Before you leave," he said. "I must inform you about Hecate."

"Alright," I said.

"Years ago she resided in the Underworld, and often visited my palace. This was when I was still foolish enough to believe my fellow gods and I would see eye to eye one day." He hesitated. "This was when I still loved my wife. Skimming over the details, I can say I know her very well. She is very vengeful, and she gets off on playing mind games. She's not the type to kill her prey and be done with it. She uses her powers over the mist to make her victims see things they really want to not be seeing. Only when they've gone insane does she leave them to the rest of their pitiful existence.

"So just be cautious. She's going to attack you mentally. She'll only begin to fear you when she fails to do so. That's when she'll be weakest and most vulnerable."

"I got it," I said. I pulled on my jacket and shoes and exited my room. I walked with Hades to the main hall where we met Domino.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"She is in many places," she answered. "But you'll find her at Terlingua, a ghost town in Texas. Or I should rather say she'll find you there."

With a single nod I melted into the shadows. Since coming back to life I'd also tinkered with my shadow travel ability and made it far easier to travel to places I'd never been.

Upon arrival I was surprised to find it just as deserted as the Aztec pyramid had been when I fought Thanatos. Even though it's called a "ghost town", I wouldn't be crazy to assume it'd have tourists swarming around the place.

I spent a couple of minutes roaming the empty roads, examining the town. I walked up to a restaurant that was clearly not there before it was originally abandoned. There were a few cars parked out front and on the front door was an open sign. Out of curiosity I pushed open the front door and walked inside.

On some of the tables were partially eaten plates of food accompanied by drinks that still had ice cubes in them and condensation running down the glasses meeting the coasters. Venturing into the kitchen I found food burning on a stove and water overflowing in the sinks. It seemed to be that everyone occupying the ghost town just vanished from sight.

I left the restaurant and found my foe waiting for me just fifteen feet away. Black of hair, pale, dressed in an elegant sleeveless gown and carrying a torch in either hand, Hecate stood accompanied by a black dog and a polecat.

"Where is everyone?" I asked her.

"Mysterious, isn't it?" she said in rather deep voice for a woman.

"There should be people here. There should have been people at the Aztec pyramid as well. What do you know?"

"Nothing of which you speak." She was lying, and not even trying to hide it.

I made myself sensitive to the mystical realm's energy. I closed my eyes for a brief moment and both saw and felt a vast amount of magic all around me.

"What have you done?"

"They're still alive, if that's what you mean," she replied. "As the goddess of the mist it's my job to keep the world of the gods hidden from the world of the mortals. Unfortunately having a large number of people just disappear never to be seen again goes against my duties."

"So you were there, then?" I said in disbelief. "You watched me kill Thanatos? You made the tourists disappear while we fought. Why?"

"I needed to see your power, if I hoped to face you. I've waited a long time for this encounter."

"Do enlighten me as to why you think yourself more capable than two Olympians and two titans."

"You killed Persephone," she blurted out. I could tell we'd reached the point she'd been so anxiously awaiting. Her voice was higher now and she looked younger all of a sudden; less mature.

"Yeah, I did," I said, slightly confused before I remembered what Hades said about her frequenting his palace in the past. "Were you close? Excited for your reunion?"

And with that, I cast the partially complete spell on her. For a second she seemed stunned, so I summoned Krinos and advanced, but then she crossed her torches so the flames met each other and cried out, "No!" A wave of magical energy pulsed from her and I was thrown backwards, but instead of hitting the ground, I fell. The sky above me became a shrinking circle as I descended through a hole in the Earth.

Then suddenly I was in a completely different place. I went from falling to standing in a crowded plaza in an instant. No one paid me the slightest bit of attention. Krinos was no longer in my hand so I dismissed it and it returned to my back.

I was about to start pushing my way through the mass of people when I felt a tug on my pant leg. I looked down and saw a little girl staring up at me with desperate and tearful eyes. For a moment I thought it was Hestia, before I realized how ridiculous that idea was. This girl barely even resembled the goddess I'd met my first day at Camp Half-Blood.

"Mister," the child begged. "I lost my daddy. I don't know where he went. Can you help me find him?"

I felt a natural twinge of sympathy before remembering that this girl wasn't real. None of these people were real. It was all Hecate.

"Mister, please!" she pleaded. "You have to help me find him! Or else you're evil! If I don't find him, you'll just have to be my new daddy!"

"Subtlety isn't your strong point, Hecate," I said not to the child in particular.

"That's not my name! If you don't help me, I'll cry rape!"

I closed my eyes and made myself see the magical energies and saw nothing but a solid mass of it surrounding me. My first idea was to send all of it back to the mystical realm, but there was way too much for me to control. My next idea was to just play along with whatever Hecate had planned and see what happened.

"Where was the last place you saw him?" I asked the child.

"It was this way!" she responded and hurried off through the sea of legs.

I shoved passed the people and followed her.

Finally we reached the end of the crowd and faced an alley. She took off full speed through it and I continued to follow. She eventually stopped and pointed at a door.

"He was in there!" she said frantically.

I twisted the doorknob and pulled the door open to see a solid brick wall.

"But he's not there anymore," said the child. "He's gone! BECAUSE YOU KILLED HIM!"

"I think I would remember that," I said.

"Of course you don't! Because you're a monster! You kill because you like it! You don't care who you effect! When you're done murdering innocent gods you'll move on to mortals! You'll kill every last one of us and not give it a second thought because it's in your nature! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?"

I'd have been amused at how futile Hecate's attempts to get inside my head were if it weren't for the fact that this little girl looked so real.

The girl suddenly reached behind her back and pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed herself in the stomach. She looked down at it in shock, then back up at me in anger.

"WHY DID YOU KILL ME?" she shrieked. Blood started pouring from her stomach and the flow didn't stop. Way more blood than could have fit into that tiny body spilled out onto the pavement and I just barely kept myself from vomiting at the sight.

Without thinking too much about it, I turned and ran. But seconds later I realized I wasn't running down the alley any more. I was running on grass with fifty-foot high gray stone walls towering on either side of me. I stopped and glanced behind me. The little girl was gone but the blood was still there, and it was gushing out of a hole in the wall, steadily creeping up on me. I started running again.

There was a wall blocking me from going forward, but the path continued on to the right. I continued running until I met another wall and could go either left or right. I went right again and it was when I the walls split into two different paths again that I realized I was in a maze. So I kept running in search of the exit, and whenever presented with an option I picked the right path.

When I finally found the maze's exit, I wasn't much better off. I was now in total darkness. I conjured a flame in each hand and was still lost. All I could see now was a circle of ground surrounded by more darkness.

"Hecate, enough!" I shouted. "Face me!"

From the darkness emerged a woman, but not the one I'd been expecting. Filthy and covered in blood, Sally Jackson limped toward me.

"Why didn't you save me?" she asked, sadness and disappointment dripping from her voice. "I waited and held out hope, but you never came. You left me to _him_! Do you know what he did to me?"

For the first time, I faltered. Just to see her face again after so long — to have her thrust on me like this when I least expected it. Even though I knew she was just another of Hecate's illusions, my mental barriers shattered.

"I . . . I . . . ," I stammered.

"My son forgot about me. His puny mortal mother, not worth the Assassin's time to save?"

"You . . . you're not real," I said.

"Not real? Is that why you never came for me? I'm not a real person? Just the woman who gave you life and raised you until you became too powerful and too important to care about her anymore? Too important to even acknowledge her existence?"

None of the words she spoke were true. It shouldn't matter. It's all fake.

But it was her mouth that spoke the words — the same mouth that smiled at me even after I told her for the umpteenth time I'd gotten into trouble at school, the same mouth that hid the gritted teeth through which she lied and told me she loved Gabe Ugliano.

And she stared at me with betrayal in the eyes that I'd only ever seen sparkle with love and pride for me. Those blue eyes that turned me into a child again, that just wanted to see his mother happy, that wanted to rip Gabe to shreds for mistreating her. I was the same child that just couldn't understand why she threw away her hopes and dreams of becoming an author to work at a candy shop just for him; just for me . . .

And just like that I was back to my senses. She's not dead yet. I can and _will_ still save her. I'll enchant another piece of jewelry for her and she'll return to Manhattan where she'll become an author and sell millions of her books. She'll meet someone ten times better than Gabe and Poseidon combined and die of old age.

"Hecate stop this you coward!" I yelled out and as if my voice caused it, my mother vanished, but someone new took her place.

A girl my age with tangled blond hair and a blackened hand stood before me now. She stared at me with unblinking, unfocused eyes on a once pretty face that now looked sunken and hollow.

"Coward?" echoed Annabeth. "And what are you, then? A hero? A hero who sat around on his ass while I was being killed? Was it bravery that caused you to let me die?"

"Face me, Hecate!" I bellowed, ignoring the fake Annabeth.

"Did you even mourn for me?" Annabeth asked.

Acting on instinct and without any particular spell in mind, I gathered raw magical energy to my palm. I drew even more and condensed it into a palpable force surrounding my knuckles. In the same hand I began the anti-Hecate spell then punched through the mist itself.

The fake reality I was in shattered and fell away as the mist faded to nothingness. And now I was face to face with a shocked looking Hecate. Before she could react, I summoned Krinos and thrust it through her stomach, but I felt no resistance. I looked down and saw the trident went all the way through her. I looked back up and was surprised to see she was smiling. And then she faded out of existence.

"You didn't honestly believe it'd be that easy, did you?" a voice said from behind me.

Immediately I shadow traveled ten feet in front of me and turned around to face her. She aimed one of her torches and shot a bolt of magic at me. I raised Krinos to block it and its lines turned purple, so I pointed my trident and returned the magical bolt to her.

She carelessly waved her other torch and the bolt veered off and hit the ground a couple of yards away from her. She then began firing other spells at me but I'd already activated my shield to block them.

Spell after spell she sent after me, but none of them struck home. They either bounced off my shield or got absorbed by my trident. The ones that didn't get blocked hit the ground behind me because I'd dodged them. Several minutes this cycle continued until she finally began to tire and left an opening.

I quickly drew my needle gun and shot no less than four needles at her. The first two hit her two ankles and the others landed in her stomach. She dropped to her knees momentarily but quickly dispelled the needles and got back to her feet, but I was already sending her own spells that got absorbed by Krinos back at her and it took all of her effort to block them.

As soon as Krinos's lines turned from purple back to their normal blue I fired as many needles at her as I could in two seconds. Her magic repelled most of them but a few stuck, which was all I needed. I drew back my arm with Krinos in hand then launched the trident at her like a javelin, and I didn't miss. She fell to her knees and then began to wither and fade away.

Krinos fell to the ground and landed between Hecate's two torches, still ablaze. Its usually blue lines were now glowing a bright white, brighter than the rest of the trident's unchanging color. I walked over to it and picked it up. As soon as my skin connected to the cool metal the lines slowly faded from white to red and I felt an uncomfortable energy running up my fingers and being absorbed into me. Soon the lines were just red, then they returned to blue. That was flux, that I just absorbed — the imprint that death leaves on the world that Gund gifted me the ability to manipulate and wield to my advantage.

" _Thank you, liberator,_ " two voices said at the same time from within my head. I looked up and saw Hecate's polecat and dog running merrily off into the distance to enjoy their newfound freedom.

I dismissed Krinos then did something that I usually tried to avoid doing: I called upon my powers that I'd inherited from my father. A ball of water flew through the open door of the restaurant and splashed down on the torches, killing their flames. Then I heard noises.

There was the sound of two car doors opening as well as the sound of forks meeting plates. I looked up and saw the people had returned, but no one seemed to notice me.

I picked up the extinguished torches then shadow traveled to Manhattan and left Hecate's sticks of wood in the lobby of the Empire State Building where the gods would easily find them. After I returned to the Underworld and said nothing but, "Hecate is dead," before trudging off to my room to sleep for twenty-four hours.


	18. Mora

Seven months, two weeks, and a day — that's how much time passed since Krinos's lines last glowed red. That's how long I had to build an arsenal of powerful spells to wield against my foes. That's how long it took for my next targets to become vulnerable.

The first time I'd entered the mystical realm after killing Hecate I noticed a _very_ considerable increase in my control over it. I was able to craft spells far quicker and far more efficiently; I was able to summon far more of its energy to Earth; I was able to understand more clearly how it all worked; and most importantly the realm yielded a great deal more of its secrets to me, allowing me to craft spells I might have once deemed impossible for me.

So now I'm ready to take on my most dangerous foes and knock down the last hurdle. I'm ready to begin the plan. I'm ready to topple Olympus.

* * *

Seeing through Domino's eyes was a very strange experience. The screen through which we watched couldn't properly portray the speed at which she moved so it seemingly just cut from one scene to another with a blur. She also darts around like a fly, hardly giving us enough time to register what she's seeing.

Fortunately we didn't have to try and comprehend the screen's flashing images for long because, as Domino had put it, "I'm just going to go in, watch their interaction, then leave. This will help you understand how they think." But although short, as she claimed the interaction would be, she had under a minute to waste before it began.

After the nauseatingly rapid movements ended, Domino became suddenly still and stared at two figures sitting on a rock facing a rough looking man with a damaged face.

" _It's done," said one of the pair. The statement wasn't a question, even though it prompted confirmation._

 _Hephaestus took from his pocket a square bronze plate and laid it on the ground. It had a white circle in the center of it that looked like it could be pushed to serve a function. "Why are you so sure this'll work?" he asked. "Three of you couldn't do this last time she was about."_

" _We could have," said the second Fate._

" _But we didn't need to," said the first._

" _We foresaw usefulness in Dominatreazecks."_

" _But regrettably, that changed too."_

" _With everything else,"_

" _In favor of Poseidon's mistake,"_

" _This is our only option now."_

" _But how can it trap her if she isn't in range?" Hephaestus asked._

"Trap her?" said Bianca with a worried expression on her face.

No one else commented.

" _But she is in range," said a Fate._

" _Hiding out of sight," continued another._

" _Activate it now."_

" _So we can destroy her."_

"Why isn't she fleeing?" Hades said, sounding unusually panicked.

 _Hephaestus leaned down and pushed the white circle on the thin metal device and the circle started to glow. A few seconds later a beam of energy shot from the square directly at Domino, reeling her in until she hovered directly above the trap, facing the pair of Fates who both wore twisted smiles on their sagging faces._

" _We had high hopes for you, Dominatreazecks," the Fates said in unison._

" _I had my own," Domino replied calmly._

"Percy, go!" Nico said, staring at me with fear in his eyes.

"Not yet," I said.

" _What?_ " said Nico, Bianca, Zoë, and Hades together.

"Not yet," I repeated.

" _Can you feel fear, machine?" one sister asked._

" _Can you sense your doom approaching?" asked the other._

" _I'm ready to face my destruction," said Domino. "I was created without the weaknesses gods possess, and your immense fear of death is one of the excluded."_

" _So you still don't regret siding with the boy?" the Fates said._

" _The only thing I'll regret is not getting to analyze the fear in your eyes as_ you _sense your_ _own_ _doom approaching. It would have given some interesting data to play with."_

And then the screen went black.

"What?" Hades said. " _What?_ "

"She's not dead, is she?" Bianca asked.

Then everyone turned to face me. I said nothing, then shadow traveled away.

* * *

Arriving at the scene we saw through the screen I found no more than I expected to find. Hephaestus and the two Fates had already gone, leaving behind shards of metal, circuitry, wires, etc. I wondered whether she felt it.

From my pocket I took a square device with a radar screen on it. It was designed and built by Daedalus and enchanted with magic as well as flux by me. We created it not a fortnight before for this specific purpose.

I pressed a button on the side and a tiny satellite dish popped out from the top and spun around for a few seconds and then stopped, pointing straight at a seemingly insignificant spot. Then it jerked a tiny amount to the left then a larger amount to the left. It now rotated between staring at those three spots.

Three blips appeared on the screen. Two were close together and larger than the third. I tapped the two dots and the screen changed to display a loading bar. The dish began to spin again and continued to do so for a quarter of a minute until the loading bar was full. The screen changed once again to show a clear image of a cave on a mountain. In the lower right corner written in white text were the words, "Mount Olympus, Greece". I turned off the tracking device and shadow traveled to the location at once.

I entered the cave and saw the two remaining Fates sitting in chairs, staring right at me. If they were surprised to see me, they showed no sign of it.

"So you've come for us at last," said Clotho or Lachesis.

"Here to avenge Dominatreazecks?" asked the other one.

"You could put it like that," I said. "I thought the gods were constrained to America."

"Constrained? Not at all," said one.

"We can go where we please," said the other.

"And . . ."

". . . we . . ."

". . . prefer . . ."

". . . to . . ."

". . . stick . . ."

". . . to . . ."

". . . our . . ."

". . . roots."

They spoke in such synchrony and fluidity that it sounded as if it were just one person saying the sentence.

"I'm curious," I said. "Did you ever foretell your own deaths? Did you ever predict any significance of this day?"

They smiled. "You flatter yourself, assassin," they said in unison. "This day marks the destruction of Dominatreazecks, and nothing more."

"Maybe your foresight isn't as accurate as you once thought, then."

"But we've seen, Perseus Jackson. The destruction of the Earth looms nearer. And when that day comes, we will be there to stop it, because even gods cannot survive the Armageddon. This we've seen."

"Interesting," I said. "And when you saw yourselves saving the world, were there two Fates or three?"

Their eyes flashed dangerously.

"Ah," I said. "I see then. Your prophecies are worthless now."

"Just because you inexplicably have the ability to meddle in our foresight doesn't make it nonexistent. We saw Dominatreazecks's death on this day years before your birth. You kill us but Armageddon still comes. We just won't be there to stop it."

"I think I'll take my chances." And with that, I summoned Krinos and stabbed the trident into the ground next to me as more of a ceremonious act than anything. Magic was going to be my main weapon in this fight.

I raised my hands and prepared the same spell once per hand and cast it on the each of the Fates. I could feel that it succeeded. They were now bound to this cave and couldn't leave for as long as I kept the spell sustained. I attempted casting another pair of spells on them but the air in between us rippled and the spells bounced back at me. I dodged the rebounded spells and stepped toward the shield they'd created.

I placed my hand on the rippling air but it was forced backward. I then tried two different spells to break the shield and tried shadow traveling to the other side ll — all three failed. I was about to try something I knew would succeed but then I heard sound coming from behind me and instinctively shadow traveled a couple of feet to my right to see a large, hairy man with the head of a bull get thrown backward by the force field. As it was getting to its feet I cast a spell on it and it became perfectly still. I dismissed Krinos from where it sat stuck in the ground as I walked toward the beast and summoned it to my hand. I stabbed the Minotaur in the chest and it exploded to gold dust.

I moved toward the barrier and prepared to shatter it, but it sped away from me; the Fates sped away from me too. The entire cave stretched and expanded until the ceiling was twice as high and the walls were five times as distant from each other.

Expecting another monster to attack, I turned on my heels but saw nothing. Not a second later, I was thrown face-first toward the ground and felt claws digging into my back just to be retracted, then dug in again as the unknown creature tore at me ruthlessly.

I willed my body to become immune to fire and then immediately summoned a fiery explosion right underneath me. Both myself and the creature were thrown clear from my spell's area of impact and its attacks ceased. I hastily healed myself then got to my feet as I began to feel my magic's strain on me. I then got a look at the beast that had attacked me.

Standing on four legs at about six feet tall with shiny golden fur, the lion of Nemea roared at me and bent its front legs low, ready to pounce. It had a barely noticeable golden glow around it.

"Heracles killed you," I said. "I'm going to kill Heracles. Shouldn't you be on my side?"

It gave no heed of my words and simply charged at me. It was likely that the beast just wasn't sentient.

I rolled to the side to avoid its attack and the lion stopped on a dime, turned, and charged me again at incredible speed. I rolled around it again, summoned Krinos, and stabbed it in the side before it could finish its pivot, but the trident bounced off its fur. Not even appearing to have noticed my strike, it swiped one of its claws at me but I jumped backward to avoid it. I then tried the same spell that paralyzed the Minotaur and that bounced off the feline as well.

The lion launched itself at me and pinned me to the ground, then proceeded trying to claw at my face in chest. I had to drop Krinos in order to catch both of its front paws in each hand to prevent it from slicing its two inch claws through my flesh.

Before it could figure out how to still inflict damage even with its front paws restrained, I planted both my feet on its underbelly and kicked back as hard as I could. It flew through the air and landed about ten feet away from where I lay.

The two of us maneuvered to standing positions at the same time. It charged and I dodged. It charged again and I dodged again. Round and round we went until it got frustrated and let out a roar. I seized this opportunity instantly and sent the paralyzing spell straight into its mouth. The beast froze.

I was next to the lion and about to kill it when several thoughts came into my head in quick succession. The first being that I noticed how vacant its eyes looked. Then I glanced at the Fates again and saw their eyes rolled back into their heads with their arms outstretched, the same as when they attacked Thalia's pine tree at Camp Half-Blood. The lion wasn't in control of itself. Perhaps it doesn't want to attack me at all. Perhaps the minotaur didn't want to attack me either.

I walked away from the feline toward the barrier, ignoring the feeling of guilt as the Fates dropped their arms and their irises became visible again.

"You show a simple beast mercy, assassin?" said one of them.

"And yet you murder gods, the very beings responsible for your continued existence?" said the other.

"You confuse us, boy," they said at the same time.

In my right hand I summoned a pure white spike made from flux. Holding it like a dagger, I stabbed the rippling air in front of me and the barrier shattered. I summoned Krinos, then shadow traveled directly next to them and attempted to kill one, but I was thrown backward by an invisible force.

"Do not think us as weakened or unwary as last time," they said.

I got to my feet and something behind me my grabbed my hand. I yanked free of its grip and turned to face my attacker.

"What is it with you two and the zombies?" I said as I turned it to dust. Zombies are dead and mindless. There's no way they can think for themselves, meaning my moral compass shouldn't stop me from killing them.

I turned back to the Fates and barely caught a glimpse of them back in rolled-back-eyes-outstretched-arms mode before noticing the cave was far less empty now; in fact, you could say it was quite packed. I was now surrounded by dozens of monsters of several varieties. Some were quite small and nonthreatening while others were the exact opposite.

Already pretty drained from the magic I'd done already, I knew there was no way I'd be able just temporarily paralyze every single monster. I definitely had some radial spells that could wipe out most of the weaker monsters, but I didn't want to kill monsters any more. If the tales lied about all gods being good and having the right to their powers, who knew if they lied about monsters being nothing but ferocious evil beings as well? Obviously some of them could have the active taste for humans, but if even one of them wouldn't attack an innocent person if they weren't being controlled then I couldn't possibly be morally correct in killing any of them. Quite a few looked humanoid and therefore must be sentient, which made it far different from just killing a deer or a bear or a rabbit. It compared to killing a person.

Great. So now I have to figure out how to kill the Fates without killing their pawns, all while being very magically exhausted. This suddenly became a lot more difficult, and it was already pretty tough to begin without.

The obvious thing to do first was to don Annabeth's cap of invisibility. It didn't work on Athena, so there was a good chance it didn't work on the Fates either. But it'll definitely work on the monsters who are all under the Fates' control, but not being manually puppeteered by them. I'd proven this when I got the lion frustrated and to roar at me. Of course, some would be able to smell me and the Fates I think would just be able to tell the monsters were I was, but invisibility bought me some time.

I didn't have a whole lot of options at all. If I'd been smart enough to think of the possibility that Greek "monsters" from legends could also be innocents in this war I'd have prepared magics to free their minds, but the usefulness of such a spell didn't occur to me until this exact moment.

So that left me with three options. The first was to flee and be better prepared for this fight, but contradictory to that statement, this was _not_ an option. If I left now the spell I used to bind the Fates to the cave would lift (I only managed to make the spell work due to a caveat, in which I was also bound to the same area they were). The second option was also out of the question because it involved killing every monster in here, and I just got done ruling that out.

So that left the simplest yet riskiest solution: flux. Flux was useful in many ways, but it had its downsides. The first one is that it's limited. Being the energy of death, I absorb it from killing things. And the only thing I've killed since gaining this ability is Hecate. I've already made use of most of what little I had.

The second downside was that it was difficult to control. It didn't work like regular magic. There was no way to shape flux into spells in the mystical realm. It's just a raw power that I can call on. It took a lot of concentration to make it function in a specific way. Also, there wasn't a great variety of ways to utilize flux. In order to make the tracking device that led me to this cave work I had to design regular enchantments in the mystical realm that were too weak to track the Fates. Then I was able to — after spending a lot of time — use flux to amplify the enchantments (speaking of, I could probably use flux to make the invisibility cap more effective. I'll just add that to the list of things that I was stupid to not have thought of in advance). If I had attempted to create the enchantments out of pure flux, I'd never have succeeded.

So here's my plan of attack: use the rest of my flux to brute force my way through the Fates' defenses, kill one Fate, absorb the flux, then kill the other. After that their hold over their pawns would lift and they'll regain control of their own minds. I'll tell them I mean them no harm, then immediately leave before they can decide whether or not they want my mercy. If this fails, then I'll be drained of flux and have to resort to one of my other methods which I'd like to avoid at all costs.

Some of the monsters were beginning to stare in my general direction. It was time to act.

The first thing I did was use a regular spell to summon a kind of force field in front of me. Then I concentrated flux into making it stronger. Thin white wisps were now bouncing around the boundaries of the magical shield. I poured more into it and the wisps got thicker, and eventually even thicker.

I attempted to shadow travel directly next to one of the Fates but I ended up ten feet from them. The air in front of me was rippling. The Fates were staring right at me, or my magical shield more likely. I could tell they had their full focus on their new invisible barrier.

I pushed forward. My force field connected with theirs. I felt resistance, but it didn't throw me backward. I pushed more and made little progress, but it _was_ progress nonetheless. I pushed harder and harder until I was using all my might to break their barrier, moving inch by inch until I began to hear a faint hiss. The hissing grew more pronounced until a quarter of a minute later, all resistance ceased and the invisible barrier burned away in a white smoke.

I stumbled forward but managed to quickly regain my composure. I tried to run forward but met a new kind of resistance. There was a black cloud pushing against my magical shield. The white wisps were becoming thinner. I willed the rest of my flux into my force field and took large, slow steps toward the Fates. The white wisps were still thinning as I made progress.

After several difficult strides, I was right next to them. I summoned Krinos in a reverse grip like you'd hold a dagger and raised my fist in an upward arc, cutting a deep golden gash into the nearest fate. I then immediately twirled my trident so I held it in a regular grip with my hand very close to the blunt end and thrust it forward, impaling the second Fate. Just then, my magical shield shattered and the black cloud dissipated. I dropped to one knee in exhaustion.

The one I'd stabbed already began to wither but the one I'd only cut was still bleeding with a horrified expression on her face. I took off my invisibility cap and looked her in the eyes.

"You've doomed the Earth on this day, assassin," she said, her voice sounding even raspier than usual.

"Whatever comes, I'll handle it," I replied, wiping the sweat off my face.

"You're a fool."

"Maybe, but I'm not the only one." From my pocket I took a small rectangular object with one word written on it and showed it to her. "Your last plot failed. You weakened yourselves for nothing."

Here eyes widened in shock at seeing the object, but then she smiled. "Clever." Then she became still, and withered along with her sister.

I returned my sight to the floor for a moment and then noticed a non-accidental golden spot on the floor beside the first Fate to die. It was a symbol I didn't understand written in ichor; it was the language of prophecy, that died with them. They must have written a prophecy that they intended to fail, which meant the black cloud I struggled with was the power of a failed prophecy.

Begrudgingly, I got to my feet and turned to the creatures that all had confused looks on their faces. The Nemean lion was closest to me, staring right at me (I'd let go of the paralysis spell after the rest of the monsters appeared). It sniffed at me, then bent its front legs and bowed its head briefly then trotted away toward the cave's exit.

"You're all free to go!" I said loud enough for them all to hear. I pointed toward the puddle of golden blood on the floor. "Your captors are dead!"

Then I shadow traveled away.

* * *

Two hours later I sat patiently waiting in a room full to the brim with miscellaneous objects and different workstations. It looked quite similar to Hephaestus's forge that I'd taken his chains from. But this was not Hephaestus's forge. This workshop belonged to the man that I stole those chains with, and thanks to his ingenuity it was able to shrink in size and weight and be carried around with him at ease.

I felt guilty making Hades, Bianca, and Nico be oblivious to the plan for an extra two hours, but it was unavoidable. I didn't have enough magic left in me to go to the Underworld, shadow travel back here, then go back to the Underworld again. They'd just have to be confused a little bit longer — or they'd possibly not be confused at all. Perhaps the initial shock had worn off and Hades had managed to guess what had happened and maybe even sensed the Fates' deaths.

The reason they had to be kept in the dark in the first place is that we had to take every precaution to make the plan unknowable to the Fates. While the Fence of Night combined with Hephaestus's chains prevents the Fates from entering the Underworld, their power could still reach its inhabitants in a weakened state. Therefore only I could know of the true plan. Even Domino wrote a virus and installed it into herself so that prevented her from remembering the plan.

"It's done," said Daedalus.

I got to my feet and joined him in front of a table on which a single machine lay. It was quite skinny in all aspects and not very pretty at all. It had two arms and two legs and only a simple cube with a camera and speaker for a head. Daedalus could have done a lot better, but I told him specifically that all that was needed were the essentials; it was going to be scrapped within a day, anyway.

From my pocket I took the rectangular device I'd shown to the last Fate to die and placed it in Daedalus's hand, which was adorned with a ring identical to the ones I'd given to Zoë — as well as Nico and Bianca, shortly after Hecate's death. The device, not unlike a mortal flashdrive, was enchanted with a similar enchantment to those rings, making its existence and contents undetectable by the gods.

He placed it in a slot that matched the device's shape and size on the machine's torso. Facing up and written in white letters was written just the name, 'Dominatreazecks'. A minute later, the machine began to make noises as it activated and awoke.


	19. Dawn

About a week after my encounter with the last two Fates, I'd departed for my next mission. I sat on a rock lodged into the sand with the cold of night attempting to bite at my skin, but the flame I held in my palm warded it off. Over the horizon the dark sky was slowly turning from black to blue. I watched the flames lick the air as I patiently awaited the crack of dawn, which was just a few minutes away.

"Now that dawn approaches, could you please explain to me how we get in?" I asked.

The noisy machine that sat in the sand took a few seconds to respond. "Hephaestus enjoys the luxury of being able to teleport in and out of Koilitita, so he has no need to make a physical entrance. However, there are vents supplying air because the fires could not burn without it. But they are much too small for either of us to fit through."

Domino paused, even though I knew she had more to say. She was either waiting to build suspense or just to get me to ask her to continue. She was maliciously compliant when it came to the "please talk more like a human" request I gave her when first met.

When it became evident that I wasn't going to speak, she continued. "Fortunately, like with most gods, Hephaestus's sense of superiority will be his own downfall. He uses his Hands to do tedious work he doesn't wish to do himself. This includes transporting things in and out of the city."

"So he created a way for the machines to get in and out, and we'll be using this entrance," I guessed.

"Not quite. We'll be getting in by shadow traveling, but _this_ will be getting in on the back of a Hand when it surfaces to collect sand for glass." On the word, 'this' she opened a compartment in her abdomen and took out a small device that looked like four rings connected together. "It's a drone constructed from resources obtained only from the Underworld. When it locates the device Hephaestus uses to block other forms of teleportation than his own it will find a spot as far away from it as possible. When there, it'll be able to create a tether that we can shadow travel to."

I thought about this. "How does that work?"

"One hundred percent of the pieces that makes up the drone comes from the Underworld. Therefore, it'll hold a piece of the Fence of Night's protection and fight against Hephaestus's device's energy. That coupled with the drone emitting radio waves that disrupt the air in a small area will scramble the magic in this space, confusing its function for a short period of time. This will allow shadow travel to that area. Magic, coupled with technology."

"That doesn't make any sense at all," I said after a short pause.

She spoke in her robotic voice that poorly imitated the one she'd used in her old body. "You've seen my engineering. It'll work."

"I don't doubt it'll work, it just sounds completely made up."

If she could laugh, I suspect she'd have done so just then. Instead, she kept silent and continued to wait as the breeze picked up and sand rose up off the ground ever so slightly to be carried away. Both of the cameras she had for eyes pointed straight ahead, taking in the nighttime Mojave desert.

Immediately upon entering the Underworld after reawakening, Domino raided the palace's armory uninvited and melted down most of the swords and armor. She needed the Stygian iron and other resources for the body she now occupies, which we'll call Mark IV. Many straight hours later, she finished it and vacated the body Daedalus made for her — that one we'll call Mark III (Mark I was the one Hephaestus forged for her and Mark II was the one she occupied up until its destruction by the Fates). Part of our mission is for her to gain full access to Hephaestus's resources and tools so she can construct Mark V, which will be her final body. This one will be equal to or greater than Mark II.

Mark IV is of elegant design. Its chassis consists of purely Stygian iron, giving it supreme durability, although not the best as Hades didn't own enough celestial bronze. However, there was enough celestial bronze for the inner workings, which were crafted delicately and intricately, giving her as much functionality as possible. With plating just detailed enough to give it the shape of an adult woman, Mark IV would serve any lesser A.I. eternally, but Domino needs to get her super-speed back for us to carry out our plans.

The sky was now a lot brighter and the stars were disappearing. As I noticed this, orange crept up over the lowest visible part of the sky. Soon after, the blinding top of the sun showed itself and the light grew brighter. Domino began counting down aloud starting at eighty-six.

When she reached fourteen, she stood and beckoned me to follow. We took only few steps, but found ourselves in a completely unfamiliar place. The desert was still around us and the sky was the same, but now it wasn't the wilderness. Under our feet was a metal platform extending about twenty feet in either direction, and on top of it were boxes and machinery. Next to that machinery were wide pits with metal walls, filled with dirt, sand, and clay. It looked like a proper construction sight, but it was empty.

Domino reached zero, then said, "don the cap," and I could hear a faint rumble coming from below us. After I'd put on the invisibility cap, she extended her arm toward me and on her palm was the drone. "Place it upon the back of the first Hand you see." Then she walked away, and she disappeared the second she stepped off the metal foundation.

I didn't have to wait much longer to see one of Hephaestus's Hands. Several seconds later a wide, empty section of the ground slid downward and then retracted into the walls, revealing the top of a shiny metal object. It had no head but had four arms and a single leg with a wheel instead of a foot, all connected to what was shaped like a breastplate that was too thin to fit any man. I could tell it was facing me because of the small sphere sticking out of its chest and beneath that a dotted rectangle: a camera/eye and a speaker/mouth. I had expected it to look more human.

I shadow traveled directly behind the robot before the elevator finished rising, so as not to make any noise with my footsteps. I placed the drone between my forefinger and thumb and held it up to its back. It flew from my hold and stuck to the metal. I shadow traveled away.

I then watched patiently as the machine rolled over to a pile of wooden boxes and picked up four of them — one per arm. After that it wheeled itself to the pit and filled the boxes with sand, somehow not falling into the pit as it balanced directly over the ledge to do so. The Hand took the filled boxes to the elevator and then repeated the process.

Several minutes later, it was back on the rising platform surrounded by sixteen boxes of sand. The elevator began to lower and the robot shrunk out of sight. When it got low enough, the hatch closed seamlessly. You'd never be able to tell there was an elevator there if you hadn't seen it.

Domino appeared again at the edge of the metal platform and walked over to me.

"How long do we have to wait?" I asked her.

"Three minutes and forty-two seconds," she responded.

I walked over to the pile of boxes and sat on one. A short while later a thought came to me.

"Is that why he calls them Hands?" I asked.

"Is what?" said Domino.

"They have four arms and one leg," I said, and after a pause added, "Four fingers and a thumb."

"An interesting coincidence, but no," she answered. "They're not all alike. Some have two legs and walk, some have two legs and roll still. There are many different designs, but they're all the same in essence. The only similarity every single one of them holds is that none of them have heads."

"Why?"

"Hephaestus can be quoted saying he'd like mortals more without heads on numerous occasions. It was a joke he and his fellow Olympians laughed at the first time he said it, but then it became a saying of his. The guillotine was one of his gifts to mankind."

I thought on that for a moment. Several memories from the orb came to me of severed heads rolling on the floor as Hephaestus smiled happily. I'd spent so much time angrily recalling the images the orb showed me that I no longer had an angry feeling to spare them. Now the recollections just ignited determination in anger's stead. Luke thought of the gods and only ever got angry, and now he's dead of his own actions. To succeed, I need to devote my thoughts to understanding the gods rather than spiting them.

I returned my thoughts to the robots. "So why does he call them Hands?"

"A man's hands are his greatest natural tool. A mortal has two, Hephaestus has hundreds of thousands. That's along the lines of how he put it."

More time passed in silence, until Domino finally said, "The drone is in position." Then she held her hand out to me.

I took it and stepped into the shadows, focusing on the drone as I did so. When we came out the drone hovered directly in front of us. I let go of Domino's cold, metal hand and she reached out and snatched the drone from the air. Now all that was in front of us was a bumpy stone wall. We were at the edge of the great cavern.

When I turned around I found a short tunnel. The cave we were in was as small as a closet and completely unremarkable, but looking out of the cave I saw a sight that shattered my expectations. A massive cavern stretched out before us, and filling every inch of it was a city only slightly smaller than Manhattan, but far more beautiful and magnificent.

The city was a couple of hundred feet below us and five hundred feet away. Looking directly down the first thing I saw was a black lake, around twenty acres wide by my estimate. Dotting the lake were boats, the biggest being a bit smaller than a ferry. All across the shoreline were docks harboring three times as many boats as the ones in open water. Connecting to the docks were roads that lead to the buildings.

The buildings got taller the further away from the water they got. The ones closest to the harbor were just a single story. After that the buildings had two, three, four, etc. until they could be considered towers. The towers got to be quite tall, but in terms of cities they were pretty short. Few came close to matching the Empire State Building, and for good reason.

There were hundreds of pillars going from floor to ceiling all across the city. Their main use was likely to keep the ceiling from caving in, but they're utilized for more than just that. There were platforms built around the pillars all the way up them. Every single platform was connected to another by bridges. On these platforms were more buildings, none more than a single story tall.

There was a single pillar that stood out the most. It appeared solid gold and was thinner than the others and there wasn't a single platform on it nor a bridge connecting it to the others. It held the shape of a square, even though all the others were cylindrical. It stood toward the far edge of the city, not too far from the water. In all actuality it was quite bland, and all the others were the opposite of that. That's why this one stood out.

But a few pillars aren't enough to make a city extraordinary. What really made it so beautiful was the buildings. From a distance I was unable to make out any details, but I could see their shapes. Every single one of them was unique and unorthodox. They had different materials and colors, but still somehow complemented one another. One building arched over another that had the shape of a shield. Another tower wrapped itself around its neighbor yet the two still managed to look separate. All of them were so needlessly complex. It was weird, but looked so wonderful. You could give mortals all the blueprints to make the city and all the resources they'd need but it still wouldn't be finished a millennia later.

"Welcome to Koilitita," Domino said beside me.

Domino explained it all to me just a few days previously. Koilitita existed for a few centuries before Hephaestus created her. His original intention for the city was to test out a purely autonomous society. He'd already begun to think the world would be better without humans in it and sought to replace them with machines. Zeus forbade this idea for a few potential reasons.

So Hephaestus moved the city underground and gave it the far less important function of performing menial tasks he deemed beneath him. Some examples of these tasks included: mining and processing resources such as celestial bronze, mass producing machinery or producing a singular and massive machinery (such as Talos), and simulating a society.

The city was controlled and maintained by a single artificial intelligence that was nowhere near as advanced as Domino. It mainly tells the Hands where to go and what to do. It sees through all their eyes and hears through their microphones. It detects structural damage and potential structural damage not only in the buildings but in the cave itself and the city's plumbing. The city never would have succeeded without it and would have collapsed not even a decade after it was built, and Hephaestus never even gave it a name. We're going to destroy it.

"If I can't shadow travel down here, how do we get to the city?" I asked.

"There are a few options," she responded, "but the one we'll go with has to be discreet. If one of the Hands sees us, Hephaestus will know at once. So you'll simply jump into the water, climb aboard a boat, and place one of these on each Hands aboard." She handed me a leather bag filled with tiny metal circles. "This will disable them whilst constantly sending a signal to the A.I. informing it that nothing is wrong. After that is done I'll be able to climb aboard the ship and we can sail it to port."

So I put on my invisibility cap and did what she said and a few minutes later, we were aboard a small fishing boat headed for the city.

"Where exactly are we headed and how do we get there undetected?" I asked as the shore came closer and closer.

"Hephaestus's workshop and vaults are as far from the elevator as possible," Domino responded. "The elevator is the thinnest pillar with the edges. He's haughty enough to believe that no one would ever break into here, but is still sensible enough to prepare for what he thinks impossible. The forge and vaults down here are his main ones. This is where his greatest inventions will be and where he crafts them. The forge you stole his chains from was one of his many lesser forges."

"Okay," I said. "And the A.I. is at his forge?"

"No. The A.I. is in the exact center of the cavern. This is where we must go first. Once we destroy the A.I. all the Hands will deactivate, and we can traverse the city without obstacles. I say we, but you'll be going alone. I cannot get to the center of the cavern without being detected, or at least it would take far more time than would be necessary. With your invisibility cap you can do it swiftly."

"Alright. How will I know where to go?"

"You'll need to search for a Hand made of silver, rather than bronze. These are maintenance workers. Once you find one, you'll follow it and it'll eventually lead you to your destination. Any issue they resolve or check they have to return to the main control room to log it."

"Why doesn't the A.I. just log it automatically if it sees through their eyes?"

"Koilitita was built to simulate a society, and it sacrifices efficiency to do it accurately."

"That just seems completely pointless."

"The entire city is pointless. Why would a bunch of robots controlled by one A.I. need buildings to live in? Gods are patient, as they believe they'll never die. Hephaestus designed his A.I. to simulate a society perfectly. Those Hands out on these boats are doing literally nothing. They're just sailing for the sake of sailing."

"Alright, I get it. I guess that was one of the tamer things for me to nitpick. Well, when I get in there, how will I destroy it? Do I have to hack a terminal or something or just torch the place?"

"Fire will get the job done."

"Okay. Anything else I should know?"

"Muffle your footsteps. The Hands can hear quite well. Meet me at the closest pillar to you when you've finished."

The boat was now very close to shore. Domino dropped the anchor and we came to a stop. With a single wave goodbye, I hopped off and walked into the city. I used a spell I'd begun working on the morning after the Fates' defeat and finished two days ago. It wasn't too difficult to create, actually. I duplicated shadow traveling and then modified it to serve a different purpose. With the spell active, every time my foot makes contact with my foot's shadow, all sound made by the step will melt into the shadow and dissipate, giving me perfect stealth in combination with the invisibility cap. Domino had said it'd be important for me to create this spell when she first introduced this mission.

So I walked into the city among the bronze, headless machines in search for a silver variant.

As I traversed through the crowds of automatons, I was able to get a closer look at the buildings. As I suspected, they were very intricate and detailed, and just as weird and random up close. I saw one building made of gray stone, delicately carved to have the texture of metal plating. Right next to it was a building made of metal that was shaped to have the appearance of bricks, grout and all. If Annabeth were alive to witness this place, she'd never want to leave.

But no matter how fascinating the architecture was, Koilitita gave me a very strange feeling. The Hands all moved so fluently and independently and interacted with one another like humans would — I even witnessed one bump into another and the two began to fight as other Hands stopped to watch — but it was all so fake that it was palpable. The city felt alive, but it felt so hollow. It was as if the city itself was just one giant, inhuman robot — which, now that I think about it, it technically is.

It took a little bit to find a silver Hand, but was far less "needle in the haystack" than I'd anticipated. It was maybe a quarter of an hour after I'd started searching when I spotted a shiny set of shoulders rising higher than most of the others.

Tailing the silver Hand was far more time consuming. We must've passed a hundred buildings before the Hand turned into an alleyway. He stopped at the end and began to fiddle with what looked like a circuit breaker. A couple of minutes later it seemed satisfied and walked back out of the alleyway.

We traveled an even farther distance this time until finally stopping in a round plaza with a tiny, dome-shaped building in the center where you'd expect a fountain to go. At a glance I suspected it was made of celestial bronze rather than normal bronze.

When the silver Hand stepped up to it a panel slid open revealing an empty room. It stepped into it and I quickly followed before it closed again. It was such a tight space that I had to hold my breath to make sure it couldn't hear me. After it pushed a button on the wall, the floor we stood on began to descend. Just a couple of seconds later the elevator stopped and the Hand stepped out into a well lit room filled with technology.

Mounted on the wall opposite us were large monitors with control panels underneath them. The wall that the elevator opened out of was lined with tall black boxes with lights all over their front faces. The Hand walked over to one of the control panels and began to type. When it finished, it began to walk back toward the elevator. Before it could reach it, I pulled a metal circle from the leather pouch Domino gave me and placed it onto its back. It collapsed motionless, just like the ones on the boat did. Immediately after that an alarm sounded from above. I probably should have assumed there were cameras in here.

Without further hesitation, I used the first bit of magic I'd ever learned as well as a self-invented fire immunity spell and set everything in here ablaze. The boxes began to spark and erupt in tiny explosions and the glass on the monitors shattered as the temperature rose. I willed the fire away from the elevator so as not to damage it and stepped inside. I pushed the button and nothing happened. I tried again and it still wouldn't lift.

So I summoned Krinos and attacked the ceiling to create a hole for me to crawl through. Once atop the elevator, all I had to do was make a small jump and I was precariously standing tiptoe on the ledge in front of the door. Carefully, I wedged the panel open and stepped out into the city that was now completely motionless and littered with deactivated robots. Poking up above the buildings I could see one of the pillars very near to me, so I walked in its direction.

After meeting Domino at that pillar, we traversed the city unimpeded. And by unimpeded, I mean no buildings fell on us for about an hour. After that, buildings began to fall on us. Domino had just barely stated that Hephaestus knew what was happening when ear-piercing creaks sounded and then the building to our right tilted toward us and nearly crushed us. Thankfully I was able to notice quick enough to summon a magical shield above Domino and myself in time and the concrete connected with it rather than our skulls (does Domino technically have a skull?).

My shield broke almost immediately upon impact, but the debris had already slid around it so nothing hit us. The dust settled enough for me to be able to see that the entire building hadn't collapsed onto us, but just the outer wall. This revealed what was inside the building: turrets. Literally nothing but turrets all aimed at us.

I wasn't as fast this time. I was able to recast the force field, this time completely surrounding us and having to use both hands, but not before a far larger than normal bullet struck my thigh. My leg instantly gave out and I was on one knee, but I held the shield up as I winced in pain. I was getting weaker by the second — the magical strain from the thousands of bullets hitting my force field coupled with the blood spilling from my wound proved too much to bear. I had no choice but to pour a bit of flux into the shield so I could take one hand from it and use it to remove the bullet from my flesh and then mend the injury.

"You couldn't have warned me?" I spat at Domino.

"I didn't know," she said.

" _What?_ "

"I didn't know," she repeated.

"How is that possible? You're supposed to know everything!"

"I underestimated Hephaestus. Gods are only as intelligent as their pride allows them to be. I thought he'd confront you face-to-face. The other gods would scrutinize him for centuries for sending machines to fight their most dangerous enemy rather than face you himself. It's cowardice, and I never thought he'd be smart enough to stoop to it."

"Well what do we do then?"

She was silent for a few seconds, then said, "We'll have to change our course. We'll go to the scrapyard, where Hephaestus throws all of his unfinished or useless projects. We'll find something there that will allow us to complete our mission and get out of here alive."

"Great, then lead the way."

Domino took off at a jog around the building that was trying to kill us and I followed her whilst expanding the area of my shield.

The journey was slow going, even though we were running. It would have gone faster if the entire city hadn't come to life and start attacking us. Every single building we came close to found some way to transform into a killing machine. Long, mechanical arms shot out of the windows of one and started throwing the deactivated robots at us, but my magical shield repelled them. Another disassembled itself and launched its scraps at us, but the force field held up. One simply exploded and I had to pour more flux into my shield to defend against the force of the attack. The tallest towers we passed actually did completely fall down and try to crush us, but we were quick enough to dodge past these.

Quite a while later, after a very eventful race to the scrapyard, we reached our destination. I was very tired by then. The more my magical shield blocked, the more it took out of me to sustain it — and it took a _lot_ of hits.

Once we were actually in the scrapyard, we were a safe distance away from any hostile buildings. Some still had long-range weaponry and continued to accurately shoot at us, but it was a fraction of what we were getting when in the city. Domino walked between the piles of machinery quickly and without hesitation. Then she stopped abruptly and began moving a pile a nearby one item at a time. When she finished, all that remained of the pile was a single, pristine robot that looked like a good imitation of Domino's original body, only male.

"This is my brother," said Domino. "The second Hephaestus realized my value he began making a "better" version of me. This is the result. He wasn't able to stop me before he knew I was dangerous, but he could stop my brother. He erased his A.I. before he'd ever awoken, and tossed his body here." She placed her palm over his face and made a sound that sounded like a sigh. "Nothing."

"Should I feel sorry for you right now?" I asked.

"No. This was Hephaestus's biggest mistake. Hephaestus wanted to make Brother better than me, and he succeeded. "Better" meant obedient. He would have had my intelligence, but without my "flaws". He would've been the perfect machine, but he wouldn't have been able to learn and adapt like humans do — as _I_ do. If Hephaestus had activated Brother, he'd have hunted me down and destroyed me."

Then she went limp and fell onto her side. I didn't even get the chance to comprehend what had happened before Brother shot to his feet in an instant, sending a gust of air around him by doing so.

"I do still sometimes wonder if kinship with another would have made me feel more human," he said in a very human-sounding male voice. "This isn't right. Give me a second. How about now?" During the second sentence his voice warped and twisted, but when he spoke the third he sounded exactly like Domino did in her original body.

"Domino?" I said.

"Yes," she responded. It was very strange hearing her young, female voice coming from an adult, male body. "Hmm. I thought Hephaestus's craftsmanship better than this. This is a tenth as good as my design at best. I overestimated him. I was so sure he'd be able to figure out photon travel after seeing me accomplish it. We should get moving. You're going to have to brace yourself for this. Are you ready?"

I didn't really know how to brace myself, so I just said, "Yes." Then my ears popped and I felt my body move with incredible momentum, and I couldn't see anything because my eyes automatically shut tight. A few seconds later, I suddenly stopped and ended up on my hands and knees feeling very dizzy and very sick.

After a short spell I could see straight and stand upright. I noticed I was back on the surface and the sun was pretty high now, but more prominently I noticed a faint tug in my gut that wasn't due to motion sickness. I summoned Krinos and simultaneously gripped the feeling in my gut with my will and pulled back on it.

A rough, dirty looking man appeared in front of me and immediately dropped to his hands and knees. "Please! Spare me!" Hephaestus begged. "I'll join you, I'll aid you! Anything you need! Just leave me my life! Please!"

Baffled. That was the only word to describe my reaction to this. I was baffled to see a god who'd lived for two-thousand years more than me at my feet, pleading like a child.

"This is a trick, right?" I said and retreated a few steps. To my left I saw a pile of random items, getting bigger every few seconds as a blue streak accompanied by a short gust of wind appeared and then disappeared.

"No trick! Please, give me my life, Assassin!"

"Do you really want your last impression on the world to be you sniveling and begging before a demigod?"

"I don't want this to be my last impression. I want to live."

A blue blur now surrounded the pile of items, and wind shot from it in pulses.

"You see," I said. "I have no use for you. Domino is a better smith than you. You can't be trusted so there's no way I'd let you into the safety of the Underworld if I wanted to let you live. So it's between killing you and leaving you at the mercy of the other gods, who'd throw you into Tartarus for this. Would you really take Tartarus over death?"

"I'd take anything over death," he answered.

"What do you think, Domino?" I said to my left.

A few seconds passed and then Brother lay right in front of Hephaestus, deactivated and Domino hovered a couple of inches off the ground to my left, looking exactly like she did before we played our deception against the Fates.

"I borrowed this," she said. "Thought I'd return it."

"Thetis," he said to her. "Tell the Assassin to spare me, I beg you! I created you. Do this for your father!"

"My name is Dominatreazecks," Domino replied. "And I owe you nothing."

I considered beheading him as I thought it would be poetic, but decided against it because it just seemed way too barbaric. I almost felt guilty killing a man on his hands and knees, pleading for mercy, but I was able to remind myself that they aren't human. The gods are merciless, and I had to be too.

After my trident's lines went from white, to red, then back to blue, an epiphany came to me. The mystical realm worked very logically. Using engineering knowledge in there could allow me to perform more efficient and precise spell crafting. It wasn't until after I'd put together a bunch of patterns I'd missed during my countless hours in the mystical realm that I realized I didn't _have_ any engineering knowledge — at least I didn't until now.

Shaking myself out of my train of thought, I asked, "Why did he call you Thetis?"

"That's the name he tried to give me when he created me," she answered. "It was the name of the Nereid who raised him after his mother threw him from Olympus."

"So this is your permanent body now?" I gestured to her. "It'll suffice?"

"More than," she answered. In the blink of an eye, the remaining items on the ground disappeared and reappeared in her hands, which she then extended to me. "You'll need these."

One of the items was a very weathered looking blacksmith's hammer. The other three were nearly identical to each other square shaped coins about three times the size of a quarter. There was a key engraved into each of them and beneath them was a word, which was the only thing differentiating one from another. One said Olympus, another said Atlantis, and the last said Underworld.

Domino answered my question before I could ask it. "Those are one-time use instant transporters to each of the major three gods' realms. You'll know when to use them. And that is Hephaestus's personal hammer and his symbol of power. Do with it what you will."

I pocketed the keys and hooked the hammer through a belt loop. "You sure Ares will come?"

"Of course."

"It's just that you were wrong down there. We can't afford to have you be wrong again."

"What happened down there was a one time mistake that had no impact on the course of the timeline. I plan according to every possible outcome so that we come on top, including the outcomes I do not believe likely in the slightest. We're still on course to the prime timeline. Also, I'm not depending on just Hephaestus's death to lure Ares here."

Just then, the ground shook slightly, then it shook far more violently. I heard deep, booming explosions coming from beneath the ground. A few seconds later, the ground itself began to sink down. A minute later, the dust cleared and I was now standing a foot away from a massive sinkhole, a few dozen feet shallow.

"Koilitita is the name I gave the city," Domino said, "shortly after I got my first body. It's a word derived from splicing together two Greek words translating to "hollow community". Hephaestus thought it amusing and kept it, even after I'd fled his company. I'm rather glad the world is now rid of that place."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I'd found a large stash of explosives lying around when scavenging for parts for my new body, so I placed them on all of the pillars that kept the cave from collapsing in on itself. The seismic activity will not go unnoticed by the Olympians, who already felt one of their own die. They'll be able to put two and two together and realize this is where you killed Hephaestus. Then they'll squabble amongst themselves for a couple of hours before deciding to send their greatest combatant, Ares, to investigate and face you, if you're still here by then, which you will be."

"So I'm just going to wait here for a few hours?"

"Correct. Now I must leave to steal Aphrodite's golden girdle while she's distracted. I'll then wait for you in the Underworld with the others after reporting today's first success."

And with that, she zoomed away.


	20. Dusk

After Domino had left, I sat and waited patiently for Ares to arrive. Still magically drained from when Koilitita tried to kill me, I tried putting myself partially in the mystical realm so as to prepare myself for the battle to come, but I was unable to muster up the energy to transport myself there. Instead I could only stew in my thoughts while I waited.

Eventually clouds started to form and obscure the sky. Soon after, it began to rain. Then it rained harder. Finally, I saw a flicker of light in the distance, and after a few seconds' pause, a clap of thunder could be heard. Something was coming — I could feel it.

And come it did, in the form of a muscular man wearing a full set of leather armor and wielding a shield and spear. His approach wasn't even visible. The sky flashed in lightning a second time and when it darkened once again, he was just there. Then he attacked.

Not a word was spoken. One second he was standing a few feet away, and the next we were fighting. Seconds passed, then minutes, and we were still striking with ferocity equal to one another's. Neither of us could gain the upper hand.

I tried to learn his fighting patterns so I could counterattack effectively, but it was impossible. He had no constant patterns. Every time I tried to attack based on his previous moves, he surprised me with something completely different. His fighting style could only be described as chaotic, but it was effective. There was no logic to the way he fought; he just struck when he saw an opening and blocked when I attacked him.

It was probably the most spectacular duel there ever was. When I fought Trecy in the Outerlands, it was only a spar. But this time, both of us were fighting to kill. I could feel all of Olympus watching, and I couldn't fathom why all the gods didn't just charge down at once and try to take me down — a part of me knew they'd likely win that way.

At one point I just came to accept that this was just how things were now: us fighting. There was no end in sight, and we'd just ruthlessly attack each other until the end of time. With realizing this came relieving freedom. My body went into autopilot and my mind wandered.

Instantly, my thoughts landed on a fable that Hades had told me recently. I don't know why my mind chose to think about it now, but it did and now that I started pondering it, I couldn't stop. The fable was a story of a mouse and a lion. It went like this:

 _A mouse is searching for food when it unfortunately encounters a lion doing the same thing. The mouse runs from the lion and the lion chases it. Luckily, the mouse is able to fit into a hole and finds itself in a tiny cave where it cowers in fear. The lion, determined to eat its prey, waits patiently outside the crevice for the mouse to come out._

 _A couple days pass and the mouse is starving and near death. It accepts that it is about to die and is about to fall asleep for the last time when an apple with golden skin rolls into the mouse's hiding place. Frail and weak, the mouse crawls to the apple and nibbles at it slowly. When the mouse has eaten its fill, the apple is missing only a small chunk and the mouse feels invigorated._

 _The mouse charges from its crevice and begins to grow in size. It becomes a lion with grey fur, and begins to fight its predator. The two lions are evenly matched, and neither can gain the upper hand. They clash for hours until the grey lion begins to shrink until it was once again a mouse. It scuttles away, back into its crevice to hide once more._

 _The next day, the mouse is once again hungry, so it eats more of the golden apple. It becomes the grey lion once again and the two lions fight for the second time. The process repeats itself over and over again until one day, it begins to rain. The apple is but a core and the mouse leaves the crevice for the last time. When the fighting ends, the mouse tries to scuttle into the crevice again but fails, because it can't find it. The rainwater and mud filled the crevice so the mouse's only salvation was no more. The mouse tries to flee, but its tiny legs cannot run in the water. The lion catches the mouse's tail in its teeth and eats the mouse. After it enjoyed its meal, the lion slept for a night. The next morning it stalked a new mouse and chased it into the same crevice (now dry and empty once again now that the rain has ended) where a basket of golden apples sits in a bush ten feet away._

 _When the mouse and lion fought, the two were evenly matched. Neither could gain the upper hand over the other, but the lion still won; because in the end, the mouse was always a mouse and was never truly a lion._

When Hades first told me the fable, I had several questions. Why did the mouse keep fighting the lion instead of just running away? Why was the lion so intent on eating the mouse when lions need much larger prey for sustenance anyway? Where did the golden apples come from? What was the moral of the story?

When I'd asked Hades, he simply responded, "that's the riddle." I gave it a little bit of thought then, but haven't had it pop into my head again until now, and I just couldn't think of why. So I tried to connect the fable to my current situation.

In the fable, there are two evenly matched opponents who can't gain the upper hand over one another. They fight for a very long time and it's raining in their last battle. Ares and I are both evenly matched and we've been fighting for a bit and will probably still be fighting a couple of hours from now, and it's also raining. All of those things line up, but then there are a lot more inaccuracies.

Neither one of us has enough attributes aligning toward the mouse. I am human and Ares is a god, but the metaphor of the golden apples doesn't apply to me, unless it just refers to me having to replenish my strength by sleeping. That is a possibility, now that I think about it.

But the thing is, the mouse eventually loses to the lion. I can't be the mouse because I'm going to be the victor in this fight.

By default, that makes Ares the mouse and me the lion. If you connect the metaphors less literally, you can say that, being a god, Ares is just a weakling only feigning power. They claim to be immortal, but I can kill them, and even before I came around they could fade. So the mouse could represent Ares's vulnerability until it faces me and becomes a grey lion — and if I prolong the fight long enough, the grey lion will once again shrink down into a mouse and I can kill him.

I still feel like I'm grasping at straws, though. Both possibilities seem to fit the story if you contort the details enough, but there are still holes in my theories.

After half an hour of fighting, I succeeded in striking a blow against Ares, but it was with the blunt end of my trident and it connected with his armor, so no damage was done. Ares, however, was able to counterattack and knock me backward, but I recovered and the duel continued.

The mouse and the lion didn't refer to me or Ares, I could say that much. If I can figure out exactly what they are, I can solve the rest of the issues, or if I could solve some of the other issues I could figure out what the mouse and lion are metaphors for. Ironically, I don't think I've had a clearer headspace than now, and I have plenty of time to ponder it.

A few dozen parries later, I had an idea. What if the lion and the mouse weren't actually fighting? What if the fight is more metaphorical than I'd assumed? So what does the fight represent?

Following that train of thought, I came to the realization that the lion and the mouse don't represent two people/beings, but two groups of people/beings. It wasn't long after that realization that I concluded that the lion represents the gods and the mouse represents the humans.

The gods can't exist without the humans, so they keep us alive by "giving us a golden apple". When the mouse exits its sanctuary and fights the lion, it represents the gods and the humans struggling to stay alive. Humans stop believing in the gods (represented by the mouse attacking the lion) and the gods kill humans and horde their immortality for themselves (represented by the lion attacking the mouse). When the mouse finally dies, a new one takes its place in the same crevice to nibble on a new apple — this represents one generation of humans being replaced by the next.

The lion, being a carnivore, is uninterested in eating the golden apples, so it gives them to its prey so it can eat them. This translates to the moral of the story: humans and gods cannot peacefully coexist. If the lion were to just eat the golden apples as well as share them with the mouse, humans and gods would see each other as equals and live together eternally. Sadly, this is not a world the gods want; they're happy with the destructive and chaotic one we have. So I must be the lion's offspring who kills the lion so the mouse can live freely.

This theory is all well and good, but there's still one problem that I just couldn't figure out: where did the lion get the basket of golden apples?

As our duel went on, I began to notice there was something strange about Ares. His movements and facial expressions seemed off. I had a mental image of who Ares was based on all the information I had but he wasn't matching my expectations. Where there should have been cockiness and a quick temper, there was determination and forced calm. It was as if he knew the stakes were high from the very beginning, which was new because all my past foes were arrogant enough to believe they could still best me. Yet one of the gods most capable of doing so was behaving like he knew he might not come out of the fight alive.

Part of me wanted to respect the realist mindset, but most of me knew there was something else going on. The other Olympians must've said something to him for him to be in this mindset. Perhaps it's related to him fighting me alone when all the other gods know where I am and could easily try to ambush me. Maybe it's not just me that Ares has to be afraid of.

By the time I was finally strong enough to use a bit of magic again, the sky was darkening and the sun was nearing the horizon. The temperature was dropping and I couldn't be more grateful for it — fighting for several straight hours in a desert really builds up body heat.

I honestly couldn't tell myself how I lasted so long and still managed to keep my reflexes quick. I couldn't use healing magic to boost my adrenaline at all because my magic was drained from Koilitita. I may be a godslayer but I'm still human and no human body is capable of what I was putting mine through.

I tried to think back to the powers I'd obtained that might grant me this level of endurance. I killed Hephaestus, but he gave me engineering knowledge. I don't know what I got from the last two Fates, so it could be they gave me a fragment of divinity or something? I killed the Minotaur a second time, but he's not powerful enough to grant me this much endurance. Perhaps I've just always had this much endurance. I did kill a lot of monsters at the battle of the labyrinth; it's possible that I just siphoned a cumulative godlike endurance from them all and just never discovered it before now because I had no need to last this long.

The sun was three thirds gone when I finished contemplating what spell to use — I'd given it a lot of thought because I could likely only have one shot at it. I baited Ares into a heavy, over-head strike by taking a blunt attack and stumbling backward. I waited for the last second and then rolled to the left and his spear was lodged in the sand, but only for a second. The second was all I needed to land a spell on him.

The spell I'd used was a simple one; all it did was delay his actions by two seconds. His mind would work at full speed but his body would respond slower, which was enough to give me the upper hand.

I blocked his next attack by catching his spear in between Krinos's prongs. Then I twisted the trident which took the spear from his hand. After that I performed a kind of twisty flip that I'm very proud of having pulled off. While mid air I sliced the strap on his shield causing it to fall to the sand. When my feet connected with the ground again I immediately thrust my trident forward, dealing the killing blow.

And that was that — the fight was over. Ares was dead without a single word being spoken by either of us. The sun had fully disappeared beneath the horizon.

Lightning flashed across the sky and the rain came down harder. I decided to leave before the gods could decide they wanted to send everything they had at me after all. I picked up Ares' spear and shield then shadow traveled to the Empire State Building. I left the spear and Hephaestus's hammer in the same place I'd left Hecate's torches. I kept the shield and went home.


	21. Tales

**A/N:** This is an unorthodox chapter for this story, but when I wrote it I knew the story was nearing its end and wanted to prolong it. Not only that, but I wanted to give more character depth to those that have been neglected. This is my "Tales of Ba Sing Se" inspired chapter. I found a way to utilize it for more than just a filler chapter and threw in some important information and hints for the rest of story.

Before you start reading it, it's important to note that there isn't a strict timeline to this chapter. They are not written in order as to when they occurred. Some tales could be happening at the same time as one another or one of the further down ones could have happened days before one of the further up ones. It's purposefully vague.

* * *

 **Domino's Tale:**

Domanatreiazecks casually walked through an office filled with nine well dressed people standing in front of a table. One of them, a woman with a strong demeanor, sat with a pen in her hand and was staring at some kind of contract that lay in front of her written in another language. No one in the room was moving except Domino. To her, the entire world was almost perfectly still when she had her "super speed" active.

She stepped up to the only sitting person in the room. She was the leader of the country they were in and about to sign an important document. Domino held up a light bulb in front of the woman's eyes and it proceeded to flash between colors rapidly. After the bulb changed colors a few hundred times, it turned off and Domino was satisfied. The foreign country's leader had just been hypnotized into reconsidering the document she was about to sign.

Domino then zoomed away to a back alley at a completely different place in the world. The scene she now saw was a fifteen-year-old boy with a fearful expression aiming a gun at a much older man who had one hand in the air and the other reaching for his back pocket. Floating in the air between the two was a bullet headed a few inches to the right of the older man. Domino nudged the bullet a few inches to the left to make sure it would hit its mark, and then went somewhere else.

Before heading home, Domino stopped at four other places around the globe and altered four other seemingly unimportant events. She nudged another bullet, but to make sure this one _wouldn't_ hit its mark; she halted a falling person's momentum midair to ensure the attempted suicide failed; she stole someone's car battery so it wouldn't start; and the last thing she did was blow out a candle that would have started a massive building fire. Only after she'd done all that would she use the Door of Orpheus to get back to Hades's palace.

After Percy had returned to the Underworld and before she'd done all that, Domino had explained to the group a few missing details that they didn't fully understand. Percy had stated the he felt that Ares was acting differently than his other victims and suspected the other gods might have said something to him to change his demeanor. She supplied the information that Zeus hadn't forgiven him for siding with Kronos and throwing Ethan Nakamura under the bus all the while hiding Luke Castellan's involvement. Zeus had sent him to face the Assassin as punishment, and if Ares returned with Percy's head he'd be forgiven. If he survived without killing Percy he'd have been condemned to Tartarus.

Percy also correctly guessed that all of Olympus was watching their battle and wondered why they didn't all just ambush him. She'd answered that the gods secretly feared he'd still win in that fight and that they also knew he could have just fled before issuing their justice against the traitorous war god.

She regretted that Percy delivered the two brothers' symbols of power back to the gods. It was a nice power movement with Hecate's torches because he'd extinguished them, but with the hammer and spear it didn't really make that much sense. The hammer would have made a good gift for Daedalus and the spear would have been of great use to Percy very soon.

It was a shame, but it didn't impact the timeline. It was his choice to make and he made it. She knew if she controlled too many of his moves he'd become more rebellious due to the lack of freedom. It was his mission after all and he needed to believe he still has control over himself. The Entity chose him to bring the world to purity. He could have given the ability to kill gods to the Di Angelos, Thalia Grace, or even Hades himself but it was Percy Jackson who became the Assassin. It was her job to guide him, not to control him.

Regardless, the plan was going perfectly. Both of Aphrodite's lovers are now dead leaving her hand open again. The male gods and a select few female gods will begin competing for the privilege to have their ways with her body once again while Aphrodite is too consumed trying to find her symbol of power to give her own views on the matter. Domino had taken said symbol of power (her golden girdle) after Percy killed Hephaestus and she reconstructed her body, only able to do so after regaining photon travel.

Photon travel was the first significant idea she'd had in her life. When Hephaestus gave her her first body she made use of the freedom by learning everything the mortals knew. With the information on how light moves at such incredible speeds, she began calculating how to harness that ability to be used on objects with mass — herself, mainly.

Skipping the complicated science, she was able to construct a mechanism that could convert ninety percent of the particles in her body into photons giving her the ability to move and think at a quarter of the speed of light. The other ten percent retains mass so that her body is still a whole object and is enough for her to still be able to physically interact with objects. She calls this 'photon state' and when she isn't moving fast, she leaves the photon state and all the particles in her body are reverted to their original physical state.

It was complicated and precise work (her first attempt simply disintegrated the Hand she'd tested it on) but due to Hephaestus giving her the ability to learn she'd eventually pulled it off. Thanks to it she could easily slip in and out of Olympus with a goddess's symbol of power without anyone ever knowing she was there.

It was also thanks to photon travel that she was able to control the timeline in such a direct way. Every day there are several unnoticeable events and seemingly insignificant people that indirectly cause major future events that severely disrupt the timeline. Domino takes it upon herself to disrupt these events so as to keep the world on course for the prime timeline. It was during the time Percy slept after killing Ares and Hephaestus that she altered six timeline-affecting events.

Upon completing her work for the time being, she approached the palace through Persephone's garden. Most of the once-beautiful mythical plants had wilted away and ceased to grow, but a few survived without need for the springtime goddess's care. One of said plants was a tall tree with fruit shrouded by bright green leaves. Domino floated up and plucked one of the fruits from its branch. She then walked toward the dark castle at normal speed with her hand grasped around the unique fruit.

 **Nico's Tale:**

Nico was bored, so he shadow traveled to the surface without any idea where to go or what to do. He wound up just walking around Manhattan, just waiting for something to catch his eye. Some people glanced at him but most didn't notice he existed, which is how he liked it.

He eventually stopped wandering aimlessly when he spotted a small game store with a chalkboard out front that read "Hosting Public Game Night Now!" After an internal struggle, Nico forced himself to enter the building. A bell that rang when he opened the door alerted five people sitting around a table in the back to his presence.

A boy around Percy's age with shoulder length hair stood and greeted him. "Hi! You here for the game night?"

Nico nodded.

"Great!" he said enthusiastically. "We were just about to get started. Take a seat."

Aware of everyone's eyes on him, Nico sat in the only empty chair next to a girl his age. She smiled at him kindly. On Nico's other side sat another boy a year or two older than him and across the table sat a guy and girl who were sitting too close to each other to not be a couple.

After introductions had been exchanged, the one who welcomed him to the group — who said that he is the brother of the store owner, who wasn't there currently — placed a select few board games on the table and asked everyone which one they wanted to play. Nico, having never heard of any of the games, abstained from the vote.

As the time went by Nico began to feel more comfortable around the other people and realized how much fun he was having. The girl he sat next to was being very friendly with him and made quiet remarks just to him quite often throughout the night. He found everyone else to be quite easy to converse with as well.

Eventually the night ended when everyone else started to leave so Nico said he might as well go too. The store owner's brother said he could stay and play two-player games for a little bit longer if he'd wanted, but Nico just slightly blushed and quietly said that he should be getting home.

After leaving the store the girl who he'd sat next to caught up with him.

"That was pretty fun, right?" she said to him with a grin.

"Yeah, it really was," Nico replied.

She then turned her eyes to the ground. "I was, uh, wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out sometime? Somewhere else, alone?"

Nico didn't really know how to respond, so he just blurted out, "no," after an awkward silence.

"No?" she said, sounding slightly hurt.

"Sorry," Nico said quickly. "You're nice and all, I'm just . . . uh . . ." he scratched his head nervously, unable to come up with a valid reason as to why he didn't want to go out with her.

"It's fine. I get it."

"No, you really don't."

"Well maybe I'll see you around here again, some time. See ya." She then walked away with her head down.

Nico felt guilty as he walked in the opposite direction, looking for a private spot to shadow travel. She was perfectly nice and he could see himself enjoying spending time with her, but only as friends. He knew he'd hurt her feelings but he wasn't confident enough to admit the real reason he'd turned her down, especially when he hadn't talked to his sister about it yet.

After returning to the palace Nico found himself with a sick stomach pacing back and forth in front of the door to his room. He knew his recent experience was as good enough of a reason as any to talk to his sister about what was on his mind, but he was so nervous that he thought he still might not do it. Eventually, after a sudden burst of willpower, his feet carried him past his room to Bianca's and he knocked on her door. A few seconds passed and it opened.

"Can I to talk to you about something personal?" he rushed out before she could even say anything.

"Of course," she said and stepped aside, allowing him to enter.

 **Zoë's Tale:**

Zoë stepped lightly through the forest, careful to not make a sound. Her eyes darted over everything in front of her as she walked. In time, she spotted a seemingly unimpressive bush. Upon closer inspection, she discovered berries hidden beneath the leaves. After picking one that she identified to be a salmonberry, she proceeded to pick several more and pocket them.

As she picked the berries, she noticed some deformations in the bush. Some leaves were torn unnaturally and had a tiny bit of berry juice splashed on them in areas devoid of any berries. This was enough to tell her that an animal had eaten from this bush.

She examined the ground below her and saw deer tracks obscured slightly by leaves and dust. The animal hadn't been here too recently, but its hoof prints were still fresh enough to follow. She followed the trail for half an hour before seeing movement. She quickly found cover downwind of her prey and took a few seconds to watch the creature.

The deer was of above average size with massive antlers. It'd provide enough venison to feed her for almost a week. Zoë took her bow in hand and drew an arrow from her quiver. The huntress knocked the arrow and took aim. She drew the string back, but just before she let it loose she jerked the bow slightly to the left with a defeated sigh. The arrow struck a tree in front of the stag and the animal ran away, frightened.

Zoë slung her bow back over her shoulder and she found her way back to where she'd set up camp. She dropped her bow and quiver by her tent and walked over to the nearby river where she began to wash and eat the salmonberries she'd picked. It was yet another day without a kill for the huntress.

Zoë recalled her first kill after the expedition to retrieve Anaklusmos. The instant she'd heard the poor rabbit's dying squeak she had a very vivid image of Annabeth's lifeless corpse appear in her mind, accompanied by Domino's voice saying it was her fault that she was dead.

The huntress's eyes remained dry but it didn't stop the constant feeling of guilt she felt. If she hadn't grabbed her shoulder then she'd still be alive, and that was a fact. It didn't matter what Domino said about the alternate time where Annabeth lived. Zoë killed Annabeth and she couldn't forgive herself for that.

The huntress finished eating the berries she picked and started to pack up her camp, still hungry. In just a couple of minutes, she had everything she owned on her and began trekking through the woods toward civilization.

As she walked she thought about how lonely her life had gotten. The worst part about her feeling responsible for Annabeth's death was that she had no one to talk to about it. Ever since Percy had killed Artemis and she learned of the gods' and her former mentor's true nature, Percy was the one person she felt connected to. She couldn't help falling in love with the only person who she had regular contact with. Now that he no longer visited her, she had no one.

When he ended things with her, she'd said she understood why he had to do it, but she now realized that was a lie. There were long periods of time in between his assassinations, so she didn't understand why he couldn't be with her in those gaps. She'd turned her whole world view upside down because of him, and then he just left her and asked her to wait.

But in the end, no matter how bitter she felt, she couldn't bring herself to hate Percy. She wanted to, and she'd tried to, but she couldn't. Now all she had was the hope that eventually Percy would kill the last god and they could then make up for lost time.

When she reached the outskirts of a town she found a sizeable rock and moved it to the side. She dug a hole and hid her things in it and covered the hiding place with the large rock, knowing society would be wary of a girl with a bow and quiver slung over her shoulder. She then entered the city and began walking the streets, not knowing what she was looking for. She wanted to visit a restaurant and eat a large meal, but was penniless to do so.

Luckily for her, though, she came across a house where an elderly man was attempting to push a couch up his porch and into his house. Zoë immediately offered the man her assistance and ten minutes later, the couch was positioned against a wall on the upper level of the house.

Upon giving her his gratitude, he held out a fifty-dollar bill to her, which she then tried to politely decline.

"Thank you, sir, but this is too much," she said.

"Oh, please," he responded. "Without you that couch would still be on my front lawn. My days are numbered and my retirement fund is hardly going anywhere. Just take it, it's the least I can do."

Reluctantly but gratefully, she pocketed the money. "Thank th — you," she quickly corrected. "You're very generous."

"Sometimes I think this world is going nowhere fast, and then a real angel like yourself comes by just to make my day easier. I wish my kids had been half as polite as you."

"You're too kind."

"Well get along now. Your time is wasted around an old geezer like me. I best be getting to sitting on my new couch."

Zoë thanked the man again and then delved further into the town until she discovered a restaurant and proceeded to eat a delicious meal. She may not be able to bring herself to kill an animal anymore, but that didn't stop her eating the meat of another hunter's game (whether or not that "hunter" is an industrialized meat farm is unimportant).

After enjoying her food she paid the bill and left the restaurant, trying to forget the palpable happiness of the couple that sat at the table next to hers. She began walking toward where she'd hidden her things and glanced up at the night sky just as the clouds parted to reveal a full moon. Once the sight would have made her feel pride and awe, but now it just put a sour expression on her face.

She returned her eyes to the ground just as she bumped into someone very abruptly. The person she ran into placed his hands on her shoulders and looked right into her eyes. He had looked completely shocked and slightly sad.

"I — I need to talk to someone right now," said Percy. "You were the first person that came to mind."

 **Bianca's Tale:**

Bianca opened the door and quietly walked into the room near the palace courtyard. She walked past tables and racks filled with all kinds of weaponry. Her eyes slid past the swords and shields but landed on a selection of bows. She grabbed her favorite and pulled the string back and let go. She then took the bow and a handful of arrows out to the courtyard.

She stood twenty yards away from a target and stuck the arrows in the dirt next to her. She nocked a single arrow, drew the string back and let it loose. The arrow flew past the target and landed outside the courtyard. She shot another and it missed too. The third one hit the edge of the target and the third hit the dirt in front of it. She proceeded to shoot again and again. She ran out of arrows, annoyed that less than a third hit the target.

Bianca gathered the arrows she'd shot and repeated the process. When she shot the last arrow this time, it hit fairly close to the middle and she felt slightly proud, but still felt she could have done way better.

"How long have you been practicing archery?" said a young, female voice.

Bianca turned and saw Domino watching her from next to the palace.

"A couple months, I think," Bianca said. "How long have you been there?"

"Only a minute," she replied. "You want to get better, right?"

"Yes. I've made some progress, but not enough." After a moment she had an idea. "You can teach me, can't you? You're perfect at everything."

A thoughtful expression came to Domino's face. "I could, but I feel there's someone better to aid you."

"Who? Zoë?"

"Yes."

In all honesty, Zoë was the one the inspired her to try archery. Bianca had thought about going to her for help, but was too nervous to do so. Zoë was a lot older than her and just appeared so strong and powerful. Bianca was intimidated by her — that's why they'd never talked one-on-one before.

"You two would make good friends, you know," said Domino.

"You really think that?"

"Most certainly."

"I guess it couldn't hurt to talk to her."

After asking Domino where to go, Bianca returned the bow and arrows back to her father's armory. She entered the shadows and came out in a forest close to a river. The sun was up and a little ways away from the horizon. She could see a tent set up not too far from her and she walked toward it.

Zoë stood and reached for her bow when she saw her, but quickly let her guard down when she realized who it was.

"Bianca," said Zoë. "This is a surprise."

"Hi," Bianca said awkwardly. "I just got to thinking and we haven't really talked before. I thought maybe we could get to know each other."

"Oh," she said. "Well yes, we should. Take a seat."

Bianca sat, and the two girls talked. Bianca found it very easy to converse with the huntress and be completely open and honest. This was something she never found herself being able to do with Nico, due to her feeling responsible for her little brother and having to always appear strong and collected for him. She loved Nico more than anyone else, but she felt really good having someone else to talk to.

After over an hour of pleasant conversation, Bianca told Zoë that she was interested in archery and that she wanted help with it. Zoë grabbed her bow and immediately started training her.

By the time the sun got low, Bianca was fully aware of all the mistakes she'd been making and knew how to avoid them. She had some immediate improvement, but still wasn't pinpoint accurate. Zoë said she was getting hungry and needed to go hunting, so Bianca gave her back her bow and thanked her the help.

Bianca shadow traveled back to the Underworld and walked around Persephone's garden feeling like she'd just made a lifelong friend. Zoë had offered to continue teaching her and told her that she was welcome to come by anytime she wanted to talk.

She wasn't sure what to do with the rest of her day so she just walked further and further away from the palace, exploring the rest of the Underworld. It wasn't long before she found herself in the Fields of Asphodel.

She'd known of this place but never been to it personally. Unremarkable people who weren't evil but also weren't heroes get their memories wiped and are thrown here for all of eternity. This is where people are punished for living lives of mediocrity.

Now that she saw it first hand, she'd come to the conclusion that it was far worse than she'd thought it could be. There was no light and no noise among the black grass and withered trees that brought only a little variety to the ocean of the nonliving. The dead she walked among were utterly miserable. There was no reaction whatsoever in them and no life, but they were still there; they were still people experiencing this depressing afterlife.

She was about to turn around and head back to the palace when she got close to a tree and her father appeared from the other side of it.

"You're evil," Bianca said before she could stop herself.

He simply gave her a sad smile.

"These people don't deserve this," she said.

"You're right," said Hades. "But I have no control over this."

"You're the god of the Underworld."

"But Percy has proven time and time again that gods aren't as all powerful as the myths would have you believe. The judges of the dead were hand-picked by the Fates and protected by ancient laws set in place to give balance to the afterlife. I cannot get rid of them nor overrule their judgement."

"Why not? If you can't control the Underworld then what are you truly the god of? And what about Annabeth? If the Fates picked the judges, then there's no way they'd send her to Elysium after she opposed the gods."

"When Annabeth died, I took her straight to Elysium before she could even see the River Styx. I helped her avoid judgement, which isn't something I can do for every single person that dies." he stops talking for a moment, then addressed her first question. "The Underworld existed before my birth. I took up residence here after my brothers and I put our father away the first time and the ever-turning cogs of divinity molded me and my power to it, but I do not control it; just as Zeus does not control the sky and Poseidon does not control the ocean. Tartarus, Ouranos, and Pontos are the primordial deities that truly control our domains. We can merely bend them and harness their power, but do not have control over them."

"So there's nothing you can do to help these people?"

"No. It's Percy that has the power to help them. These people will have peace when his mission is over."

"How can you be sure of that?"

"I have my reasons. I promise that what I say is true." He put his hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off. "Bianca —"

"Some of these people have been here for thousands of years. They've had to suffer all that time."

"You don't think I have to live with that fact every single day?"

She had no response. Still unconvinced, she shadow traveled back to her room and stewed in thought for a few minutes before she hears a knock on her door.

 **Hades's Tale:**

Hades watched from afar as Catherine Russo left a building and began walking along the sidewalk. He could still see her perfectly from a distance. She looked just as beautiful in this life as she did in her previous one.

In an instant he was behind the building she'd just passed and walked around so he was on the same sidewalk as her. He could see the middle-aged woman up ahead and noticed her keys sticking out of her pocket slightly. He closed the distance a bit more then bent over like he was picking something up, then shadow-traveled the keys from her pocket to his hand. He quickened his pace and closed the gap further.

"Excuse me," he called out.

Catherine turned around and looked at Hades, who took the appearance of a man in his thirties wearing a business suit. He held out the keys to her.

"I believe you dropped these," he said, managing a smile even though sadness was the emotion that overwhelmed him.

She took the keychain from him. "Oh, thank you so much. I didn't even notice. I can be so clumsy sometimes."

"Can't we all?" he said. Her voice was so different but he still heard Maria in it.

"My husband would have been peeved if I'd lost my keys again. They're not exactly easy to replace. Well anyway, thank you again. I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't picked them up for me."

"It was no problem at all."

She had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"I don't believe you do," Hades replied. Then, with a smirk, said, "Maybe our paths crossed in a past life."

"If only that were possible."

"You don't believe in the afterlife?"

"It'd be a pleasant belief, but I've long since given up on believing in the impossible."

"Some people need to believe there's life after death. I envy their bliss."

"Well," she said after a moment. "I really should be getting home. I already worked late, so my husband is probably wondering where I am. This has been a nice chat. Thank you, again."

"Well don't let me keep you, then," he said with a smile, which fell from his face the instant she walked away.

He was glad she'd found happiness in her third life. After Zeus cut her second one short, he'd visited her in Elysium and couldn't bear to tell her she'd never regain her memories if she chose rebirth again. She was so intent on going to the Isles of the Blest that he just wasn't able to find it in him to tell her she'd forget the love they felt for each other and the kids they'd created together.

That was his biggest regret. If he'd told her, she would've stayed in Elysium. He didn't know then that an entity would come along and give a demigod the ability to kill gods. He would have done things differently if he had.

But it was all in the past. He'd come to terms with his choices and regrets when Domino showed up. He knew everything would play out how it should and focusing on the past would achieve nothing. That's why he finally talked to her after so long of just watching her. He'd never see her again after this, and it was for the best.

Hades returned to the Underworld and walked across the main hall toward his seat. He heard the door open just as he sat down and saw Domino enter. She stopped moving when she saw him. He noticed she held a shiny object in her hand. In a blur, she was five feet from him and an apple with gold skin sat on the table in front of him. They made eye contact.

In another blur she was gone. Neither of them spoke a word to each other, but absolutely everything was said. Hades picked up the golden apple and took a bite out of it with tears in his eyes.

 **Leo's Tale:**

"It's just over this hill here," said Coach Hedge.

Leo Valdez and Piper McLean followed their coach (who was secretly part goat) until they reached the top of the hill. They stood next to a large pine tree and could see a large camp surrounded by strawberry fields, a forest, and the ocean. They could see dozens of people walking and sitting around the camp.

Leo had been skeptical when Coach Hedge had told him and Piper that they'd be going to live at a camp of demigods, but as he walked down the other side of the hill toward the camp, he realized this might be the best case scenario for him. He'd lived his whole life bouncing from orphanage to orphanage, but now he could have a permanent home with friends.

He instantly redacted that thought when they entered the camp. The people he saw didn't look happy or welcoming at all. They stuck together in small groups and constantly looked over their shoulders. Some glanced at them as they entered and others glared. The ground was covered in litter and the entire place looked very dirty and disorganized. The only word he could think to describe the camp was "slum" — this place was a slum.

"This isn't exactly the brightest hour for Camp Half-Blood," Coach Hedge admitted.

"What happened?" Piper asked.

"The Assassin happened," said an adult male voice. A man in a wheelchair rolled up to greet them. "My name is Chiron. Despite appearances, this camp is the safest place for you two."

"What Assassin?" Leo asked.

"The Assassin of Olympus is a demigod who developed the ability to kill gods, an ability of which he's put into effect numerous times," said Chiron.

"Kill gods?" said Leo. "I thought gods were immortal."

"As did we all. I can take them from here, Gleeson."

Coach Hedge nodded and trotted away.

"What are you doing about this Assassin, then?" Leo asked. "If the gods can't protect us then aren't we all doomed?"

"The Assassin has shown no interest in killing demigods," said Chiron. "But that could change. Since he began his killing spree, panic and fear has slowly crept up on the camp. Without Dionysus I've been unable to keep order here — Dionysus is the god of wine and was our camp director until the Assassin showed up and Zeus recalled him to Olympus. It's been a steady decline from there on, but I do my best to maintain the peace among the campers. Let me show you around."

Leo and Piper followed him through the camp as he explained where everything was and how things worked. There were twelve cabins, one for each Olympian. It used to be that you slept in your godly parent's cabin, but now the campers slept in the same cabins as the people who they trust.

"Hedge said we're demigods," said Piper. "How do we know who our parent is?"

"You probably never will," said Chiron. "Zeus ordered that no demigod is to ever leave the camp. Since then, no demigod has been claimed by their godly parent. It could be because the Assassin already killed them or that the gods are too preoccupied to give a second thought to their children. Either way, you'll have to ask around and make an educated guess."

"Why doesn't he want anyone leaving the camp?" Leo asked.

"The Assassin has taken three demigods and a former Hunter of Artemis as allies. Zeus wants to prevent any more from joining his cause, and will assume that anyone who leaves the camp wants to work with the Assassin and will kill them. Thankfully, the warning was enough and no one has tried to leave."

"So we're imprisoned here?" said Piper.

"Until further notice," Chiron confirmed with a glum expression.

After he'd finished giving them the tour, Chiron asked a boy named Lee Fletcher to help them get acquainted with people and figure out how life was going to work from now on.

"What do you know about this assassin?" Leo asked after Chiron had left them alone.

"No one really knows much," said Lee. "But a few years ago this kid shows up at camp, back when things were normal. Our best swordsman takes him to the arena to spar, and the kid grabs this trident out of thin air and wipes the floor with him, claims he'd never fought before. Before that day is over, Mr. D leaves Camp Half-Blood and never returns.

"So a little time passes and we have a game of capture the flag. His team won easily thanks to him and his trident. No one's surprised when Poseidon claims him as his son. Some more time goes by, and suddenly he disappears. It's a couple weeks before Hermes arrives at Camp Half-Blood saying that his death was maximum priority and that Hades is working with him.

"After the second titan war starts, Artemis is captured by Atlas so her hunters come stay here at camp. A few hunters go on a mission to rescue her, then return some time later bearing the news that the kid with the trident killed her, and the gods had no choice but tell us that he'd also killed other gods and aims to kill them all.

"Then he goes quiet for three to four years. It was around this time everyone started calling him the Assassin of Olympus. He shows back up again when Hyperion attacks the camp. They fight and Hyperion kills him. And a month later, the titan war ended and he somehow came back to life and starts killing more gods. That's when everyone started to get really afraid."

"But how can he kill gods? How did he come back to life?" Leo asked.

"No one knows," said Lee. "That's the worst part. Scary stuff."

Leo felt very shaken after receiving all this information. So little was known about this mysterious assassin and his power seemed to be limitless — even death couldn't hold him back. When he first learned he was a demigod, he was filled with hope and thought he was in for a life of adventure and wonder. Instead, he seemed to just be in for a life of fear and imprisonment.

Piper inquired more about the second titan war that Lee mentioned and he explained it more in depth before introducing them to a few groups of people that were less wary of strangers. Piper broke off and stayed with a group she hit it off with and Leo continued on with Lee. He eventually met a few people who said Hephaestus was their father and he stuck around with them, after finding they had a lot in common.

By the end of the day, Leo was convinced that Hephaestus was his father too and opted to stay in the Hephaestus cabin with the friends he'd just made. He walked toward said cabin alone that night after having eaten at the dining pavilion and stopped in his tracks when he spotted something.

He could see a man in the distance behind the cabin. He wore a black hood and cloak and looked directly at him with red eyes. His mouth moved and Leo heard a deep voice speak directly into his ear saying "Wait." Leo turned toward the voice but there was no one there. When he looked back to the red-eyed man, he was gone.

 **Percy's Tale:**

Percy left the mystical realm after having spent several hours there. Upon exiting, he instantly felt hunger and thirst hit him, so he left his room and went to the kitchen, which Hades had installed not long after he'd killed Thanatos. He grabbed a class of water and downed it. He was about to put together something to eat when everything he saw blurred together to form another scene.

He was on top of a mountain with dense clouds obscuring the sky, and he recognized it — he was back on Mount Tamalpais. The vision zoomed in on where Atlas held up the sky, except the strong, middle-aged looking man who he'd fought wasn't there; a skinny old man wearing rags now held up the sky, but only just barely.

For a moment Percy wondered who the old man was and how Atlas had gotten him to take the sky for him, but it wasn't long before the realization that the old man _was_ Atlas came to him. The titan was fading, and about to drop the sky.

Atlas's arms snapped and he fell to his back. The sky fell too and landed on his chest, just inches from the Earth. Ichor poured from his chest as he got skinnier and skinnier, until he didn't even have skin. The sky shattered his bones and met the tip of the mountain, and the vision ended before Percy could see what came after.

Percy immediately shadow traveled to Mount Tamalpais and rushed to the fading titan.

"You — agh! — see what — you've done, Assassin?" said Atlas with a very strained voice. "The entire — pantheon is fading be — because of you. Now — who'll hold — agh! — the sky?"

Percy was speechless. He'd never expected something like this to happen. Domino would've told him.

"Your actions — have — consequences," were Atlas's last words.

Percy caught the sky just as the withered titan's arms gave out. He dropped to one knee and held the sky with his hands and shoulders and felt great agony, even with Trecy's gift. He watched Atlas fade completely out of existence.

He held the sky for several minutes, completely helpless. He had no idea what to do, but he knew he couldn't just hold the sky for all of eternity. His work wasn't finished yet — the world still needed him.

He had another vision, and saw Krinos standing up straight in his position, holding the sky. With a huge effort, Percy hoisted the sky higher so he was in a standing position. He lowered his left hand and summoned his trident, placed the bottom on the ground, and held the top in front of his face. He took a deep breath and dropped the sky, trusting in his vision.

The sky rested on the three prongs of his trident for several seconds. The trident somehow managed to stay perfectly balanced, but then cracks started to form along it. They shot all the way up with a bright white light coming from them. Percy tried to catch the sky before the trident shattered completely, but he was thrown backward.

He quickly got to his feet, expecting to see Armageddon starting. Instead, he saw a pillar of white energy keeping the sky from touching the Earth with many blue and red wisps swimming through it.

He tried to summon Krinos, but wasn't surprised when nothing happened. He sat down and stared at the remnant of his trident for a few minutes, just processing his shock. He felt like he'd lost a part of himself.

Percy eventually convinced himself to leave the mountain and started to shadow travel. He thought about returning to the Underworld, but he needed a friend to talk to first. Instead of focusing on a location, he focused on a person and appeared somewhere else.


	22. Trinity

Hera, Demeter, and Hestia are my next targets. Today they die and tomorrow Olympus falls.

After they're all dead, Domino will speed into Olympus and leave with Zeus's master bolt. She'll take it to Athens where she'll strike down Athena's sacred olive tree and then return it to Zeus's side before he even notices that it went missing. Athena will be furious with Zeus, obviously thinking that he attacked her tree, and will leave Olympus, also accusing Poseidon for having something to do with it due to their long rivalry. Zeus will have lost his wife and other two sisters as well as several of his children and his daughter's loyalty. Zeus will be so angry that he'll be stupid enough to challenge me. After I defeat him, the other Olympians will sever their already weakened alliances and Olympus will literally crumble as the gods scatter and flee from each other's presence.

I need to focus on one thing at a time, however. First, I have to kill Hera.

How do you get a goddess to leave Olympus to fight you? It turns out it's pretty simple, actually. With the help of a spell I developed in the mystical realm, all I have to do is piss them off. When you disrespect their sacred objects enough, they can't help but communicate with you to give you a piece of their mind. When that happens, I cast my spell and link our two locations so we're metaphysically close to each other, even if we're physically very distant from one another. Then I can use the power the Entity gave me to force them to teleport to me.

That's why I currently stood in a zoo at night, staring at a map. Hera's sacred bird was the peacock, so I was looking for the peacock exhibit on the map. It took me a bit, but I found my way to it and shadow traveled into the bird's enclosure.

After grabbing the bird, I shadow traveled to a location I'd already scouted out before hand. I set the bird down in a meadow filled with lilies, Hera's sacred flower. I then took from my pocket a pomegranate, Hera's sacred fruit, and fed it to the peacock. After that I began picking lilies and burning them, saying Hera's name aloud after each one. It only took four to get her to speak.

"End this insolence!" said the peacock with a woman's voice. I immediately cast the spell and felt a tug in my gut, but didn't pull back on it just yet.

"I suppose you could try and force me to stop," I said.

"Do you think me stupid enough to face you, Assassin?"

"Yes."

"You disrespectful little rat. If you want me dead you can face me on Olympus."

"Because there you can hide behind the other Olympians?"

"Whatever it takes to put you down. You killed my sons and because of you my daughters and mother have faded. I don't care how it happens as long as I get my vengeance."

"And what of the countless people you've taken far more from? The families you've torn apart and the people you've murdered? What of their vengeance?"

"They're just sheep. In a blink of an eye their entire generation will be dead and replaced by a new one. You end two thousand year old lives and believe you're doing good? What's so significant about the humans' short little lives?"

"Absolutely everything." I pulled on the feeling in my gut and suddenly she stood in front of me.

She looked shocked at first and tried to teleport away, but failed to do so. Her surprise turned to fury and she used a golden staff with a lotus at the tip to attack me.

After unexpectedly losing Krinos, I'd searched Hades's armory for a replacement weapon. Having used a trident my entire combative life, I'd grown fond of polearms. So naturally I gave every spear Hades' owned a twirl but none felt right to me. They were too heavy or too light, and some of the ones I was sort of comfortable with were too weak. Krinos had been unbreakable and I needed a weapon a god couldn't destroy.

When I went to Daedalus about my predicament, he said an unbreakable weapon was impossible. He said he had a solution and handed me several dummy spears to see which one I favored in the balance and weight aspects. After a time he produced a bracelet that somehow held twenty shrunken down spears and could eject one at any given time if I did the right hand movement.

The celestial bronze spears the bracelet contained felt almost perfect to me and I could move and swing with them just as easily as I could with Krinos. When I was done with a spear, I could hold the end to the bracelet and press a small button and the spear would mechanically shrink and get sucked back into it. If one broke during combat, all I'd have to do is drop it and eject a new one.

As Hera charged at me with her lotus staff, I shadow traveled the peacock back to the zoo I'd stolen it from whilst using my needle gun to shoot her legs in an attempt to slow her down. She blocked some of them with her staff and others hit their mark, but she wasn't slowed down at all.

I ejected a spear and used it to block her first strike as I continued putting more needles into her legs. When I'd run out of ammunition, I pocketed the needle gun and put my full focus on the melee.

Hera was extremely ferocious. She wasn't nearly as good as Ares was with a weapon, but she was still powerful enough to put up a good fight. She was using magic against me, but not in any way I'd seen before; it was as if she had an invisible aura around her that was attacking me as well.

It was because of this that I had to stay on the defensive in both blocking her physical attacks and her magical attacks. But when I used my own magic, I gained the upper hand. Just like with every other god and goddess I faced, Hera soon fell too. After using a spell that created a concussive blast, she staggered for less than two seconds. In that time I knocked the staff from her hand and drove my spear through her heart. Hera fell, just as every other god and goddess I'd faced had done.

After returning the spear to my bracelet I picked up the lotus staff and shadow traveled to the Underworld. I placed the staff on the table in front of Hades and shadow traveled away. Even if the staff didn't have a use, her symbol of power would make for a nice trophy. Losing Krinos had given me a new perspective of leaving the symbols of the gods I slay at the feet of Olympus. It really didn't make any sense, so I'll be keeping them from now on.

Leaving the Underworld I ended up in a field of wheat, where I'll kill Demeter. I spoke her name aloud and summoned fire in both my hands, preparing to burn her sacred grain.

"There will be no need for that," said a voice from behind me.

I turned to face a woman appearing to be around twenty. She had dirty blond hair that was unkempt and wore a green dress that looked like it hadn't been washed in years. Her hands were covered in dirt and her eyes looked puffy. Demeter looked completely broken.

I remembered that Hades had been married to her daughter who I killed and understood why she didn't look very divine. "You'll be with Persephone soon enough," I said.

She let out a frenzied scream and the wheat around me grew and thickened, binding my hands and legs. As my skin made contact with the plants, I felt the life inside it, and knew I could control it.

Demeter walked up to me, thinking me immobile. I drained all the life from the wheat and my binds shrunk and withered away as she tried to curse me. I blocked the curse with a magical shield and ejected a spear, which I immediately used to pierce her stomach. She fell to her knees.

"That was a little gift I got from her," I said.

"Life without my daughter isn't life worth living," she said. "You took my whole world from me."

"You've inflicted far worse pain countless times over. A million people died because of the famine you inflicted on Ireland."

"That was over a hundred and sixty years ago. They'd all be dead by now anyway."

"Their legacies wouldn't have been."

I removed the spear from her stomach and returned it to my bracelet as she withered away like a crop. I shadow traveled someplace else once again.

This time I appeared in a farmers market. There were many vendors in their stalls selling varieties of food items, but I was looking for only one item.

After searching around for a little bit, I stopped at a meat stall and talked to the man behind the counter. He told me of the different kinds of meats he had and when he got to donkey meat, I stopped him there. I asked him for a slab of it and paid him with money given to me by Hades.

He wrapped the meat up and put it into a paper bag then gave it to me. I shadow traveled to a dank forest where I set the meat down and began gathering wood and stones to build a campfire. Once I got the fire going, I dropped the meat of Hestia's sacred animal into the fire and spoke her name aloud.

As the meat burned, I dragged a small boulder next to the campfire and used magic to shape it into a chair. When I sat down I saw Hestia sitting cross-legged on the opposite side of the fire.

"You're missing something," she said. "There's nothing on your back."

"Maybe I didn't want to resemble my father anymore," I said.

"Or you lost it."

An image appeared in the flames. It showed a mountain and zoomed in on the peak where Atlas used to kneel.

"When I felt his energy fade from existence, I wondered why the sky didn't clash with the Earth," said Hestia. "Imagine my surprise to see a foreign energy maintaining the balance, an energy I recognized."

"If there's one thing I'm good at, it's surprising the gods," I said.

"You break every single ancient law you come across. How do you do it?"

"I thought gods were supposed to be all knowing."

She waited for my answer.

"It must be killing you that a demigod knows something you don't."

Still, she said nothing.

"What are your theories? Where did my trident come from? Where did my power come from? Surely you must have given it a lot of thought."

"The only answer that makes any sense at all is that you somehow harness the power of Chaos."

"If that were true, would I not be immortal?"

"What's to say you aren't?"

"The fact that I've aged since killing Atropos."

She changed her appearance so she looked thirty, then sixty, then eighty, and finally back to eight. "Immortality comes with many powers. Why should you be any different?"

"Because I'm not immortal, and I don't harness energy from Chaos. When we first met, you said my trident wasn't Greek. If I got it from Chaos, wouldn't it be Greek?"

"Chaos existed at the beginning of time, far before Greece ever existed."

"But only the Greeks ever believed in your pantheon and Chaos."

"That's irrelevant."

"Is it?"

"Why does Chaos want the gods dead?"

"I'm not with Chaos, so I wouldn't know."

"If not Chaos, then who?"

"'Then what?'" I corrected.

She fell silent.

"Why do you do it?" I asked.

"Do what?"

"Everything. Burning down buildings with people in them, forcing people to burn their babies as offerings to the gods, treat human life like it's this toy that you can give and take as you please."

"If you're expecting some deep, emotional answer, you'll be disappointed."

"There has to be some reason as to why you inflict so much pain."

"Is your answer not good enough? I'm a monster who kills for sport. That's the basis you've been going off of since the beginning."

"I want to know what goes on inside your head."

"We gave the humans their life. We can do with it as we please. The majority of them kill lesser beings than them. They step on spiders and swat flies. They hunt and mount deer heads on their walls. How is human and bug any different than god and human?"

"Because they're sentient. They can comprehend the difference between right and wrong. What makes human life more valuable than the gods is that there are many that choose to be good and moral while there is only one god that doesn't choose to be evil."

"Morality is a concept invented by their weaker minds. Why should we be held to their fabricated rules? They say something is wrong and the gods have to obey that? There is a reason we are immortal while they aren't."

"That reason is that you took that away from them. The old are always replaced by the younger and stronger. Kronos feared his unborn children because he knew they'd be stronger than him and overthrow him. Zeus feared the original humans and destroyed them not long after Prometheus created them. Zeus wasn't satisfied until the humans were separated into two genders and given very limited lifespans. Just as the gods replaced the titans, the humans will replace the gods."

"And who will replace them?"

"No one. Magic and divinity die with the gods."

"But they're already afraid of their own creations. Y2K, artificial intelligence, robots. If the gods go extinct, humans inevitably will too."

"I'll protect them."

"But you said you're not immortal. When you die, who's to stop them from destroying the world and wiping themselves out?"

"They'll manage."

"You really are stubborn, Percy Jackson."

I paused. "So you've not forgotten my name. I thought I was just 'Assassin' now."

"I'll never forget that you're a human."

"Maybe that's the problem. So many gods face me expecting to come out of the fight alive because they still think they're just fighting a human with the ability to kill gods. If you'd all get into a different mindset, maybe I wouldn't be undefeated in battle."

"We're aware of your power."

"Then why do gods keep facing me? Why did you come here if you know you're going to die? I thought gods feared death."

"We do, but since you started your killing spree we've come to terms that death is at our doors. We can only hope to hurt you before we die." Her appearance changed and she looked my age.

"And how do you plan on hurting me?"

"I plan on making you see your mistakes, so you'll die one day full of regret."

"Every argument you've made has done nothing to me. What can you say to make me doubt?"

"Nothing, probably. If there is, I haven't thought of it."

"So you have nothing else you wish to discuss?" I pulled water from the air and hovered it over the fire.

"No," she said.

As I was about to drop the water, the flames suddenly grew higher and evaporated my water instantly. I recoiled from the heat and cast fire immunity on myself, but I was distracted long enough for her to get the jump on me. Two hands clasped either side of my face and she pressed her lips to mine. Time seemed to slow down as I moved in slow motion. An uncomfortable heat ran through my body and my vision went blurry. Some kind of magic had settled itself inside me.

I was able to get to my senses and ejected a spear that went straight through her gut. "What did you do to me?" I asked in a slightly panicked voice.

She fell back onto the fire and lay there, clutching the spear I'd impaled her with. At her touch, it melted and split in half but the ichor didn't stop pouring. "Good luck lifting a dead goddess's curse. You'll need it."

Then she was gone. My lips still felt unnaturally warm from where she'd kissed me. The strange sensation I'd felt left and I felt normal again. I didn't understand what her curse did, and now she was too dead to tell me.

I collected myself and put out the fire before returning to the Underworld, still furious that she'd been able to surprise and best me. When I told everyone that all three goddesses were dead, I left out the last part because I was embarrassed and also worried. When I know what she did to me, I'll tell them.

Domino gave me a knowing look, but I ignored her. She didn't warn me that Hestia might try and do something like that. She'd only told me to sleep in preparation for my next mission, and she'll steal and use the bolt on Athena's tree in the meantime.

I glanced at the wall where Hades had hung Hera's lotus staff upside down as I left the main hall and returned to my room. I get one night's rest before Zeus will challenge me


	23. Son

I sat on the ground in a wide empty area outside of New York City. I could just see the tip of the Empire State Building from where I sat. A storm was brewing right above the skyscraper and rapidly growing in size. The storm began to quickly move closer. Zeus was bringing my weapon to me.

Krinos was supposed to be my weapon in my fight against Zeus. When Hades pretended to hand me over to the gods, Krinos absorbed the lightning from Zeus's bolt and was able to send it back at him. I was depending on that ability to defeat Zeus, but now Krinos is gone. Because of that, I had to come up a new strategy to defend myself against Zeus's lightning.

I'd also been relying on gaining new abilities from Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, but I didn't get any because I didn't kill them with Krinos. When preparing for this battle I noticed I did still absorb the flux from their deaths, so I had that as a backup plan if I needed it.

After a few minutes passed the storm was on top of me and rain poured down, soaking me thoroughly. Lightning flashed across the sky accompanied by an immediate clap of thunder. I got to my feet and shadow traveled thirty feet backward and watched as a massive lightning bolt struck the place where I'd just been sitting. Electricity continuously flowed through that bolt for a solid five seconds, throwing chunks of earth around until it disappeared.

Where the lightning had struck there now stood a man in a crater wearing full battle armor and holding a sword, the handle of which was his master bolt. Electricity sparked from his body as he stood there, emanating a look of pure power. He raised his sword and pointed it directly at me.

I didn't activate my shield nor eject a spear from my bracelet. Instead, I raised my arms and bent the rain to my will. I rapidly grouped the rain water together to form a large wall and instantly turned it to ice just as a bolt of electricity left Zeus's sword. The ice wall shattered, but I was unscathed.

I created another ice wall and Zeus shattered it too. I began walking forward, pausing frequently to block another lightning strike with ice. I closed the distance half way when Zeus pointed his master bolt/sword skyward and I had to lunge forward to avoid being struck by lightning. He tried the same attack again, but this time I was prepared and formed an ice arch above me to block it.

I stayed on the defensive as he kept sending lightning bolts at me from every direction in quick succession. He aimed them at me head on, from the sky, and even arced them so they'd come at me from the side and rear, but I was quick enough to block all of them.

After I felt I'd gotten his patterns down, I began to fight back. I continued to use my left hand to form ice shields to block his attacks, but I utilized my right hand to send spikes of ice flying at him. Some struck his armor and shattered, others were zapped by his aura of electricity, and the rest he had to slice out of the air with his sword or dodge to prevent them striking his limited bits of exposed skin.

I used the water as a weapon in other ways as well. I formed a rope out of water and whipped it around his sword and freezing it, trying to pull the sword out of his hand but his grip was too strong. I also tried encasing him in a block of ice, but he just broke out of it almost instantly. I also attempted freezing his armor so he'd have to take it off, but that was ineffective, as was surrounding him in a ball of water that he electrified himself (I didn't think that one would work, but I thought I'd try it).

"That's enough!" He suddenly yelled. The rain stopped pouring instantly. "How can you hope to defeat me without your little water tricks?"

"Well the water isn't gone," I said and pulled water from the soaked earth. Our battle continued.

As the fight went on, however, I started to slow. The water sank lower into the Earth, progressively out of my reach. Most of the water I utilized got evaporated by Zeus's lightning. My source of water was becoming limited, so I came up with a solution.

I suddenly shadow traveled way up into the sky and pulled the storm cloud with me as I immediately began to fall. I condensed the clouds into a colossal ball of water and sent it flying down at the ground faster than me. Lightning bolts started flying upward from down below, but none of them came close to hitting me as I was too obscured and falling too fast for him to aim at me accurately. The ground came closer and closer as I realized how stupid of an idea this was.

I maneuvered midair and aimed my feet at the ground and my head toward the sky. I pulled some of the water back toward me in a tight, spiraling pillar. It connected with my feet and I felt resistance and could tell I was falling slower. I intensified the upward momentum of my water vortex and the speed of my decent rapidly declined. I saw the water ball I'd harvested from the cloud splash against earth and knew the ground was close.

I thickened my vortex and incidentally shortened it until I was only several feet off the ground. I let the vortex fall and I made a smooth landing, which I instantly turned into a spin move that froze all of the water that I'd just brought down into ice. It now looked as if Zeus and I were facing each other in Antarctica.

Zeus shot more lightning at me now that I was grounded but I could tell he was having a hard time keeping his footing on the slippery terrain. I controlled the ice so fluidly and efficiently that I could turn portions of it from ice, into water, shape it into a wall, and freeze it back into ice again all in a second. I could command the water as easily as I could command my own limbs.

I quickly devised a plan to use Zeus's new imbalance against him and put it into effect. I anticipated his next attack and erected a thick wall directly in front of his sword just as lightning left the tip. The wall exploded and threw shards of ice everywhere, causing him to be unable to attack long enough for me to switch from the defensive to the offensive.

With hand motions similar to uppercuts, large ice spikes erupted from the ground directly beneath Zeus. The first two shattered upon striking his armor so he'd fall into a false sense of safety. The third I aimed directly at the back of his knee where there was no metal guarding him. He grunted in pain, then used his sword to slash the spike that stabbed him as well as the one I'd sent after him after that.

I continued aiming precisely and more ice spikes shot up from the ground. Zeus had to dodge and keep moving, so much so he wasn't able to send any lightning at me. I began taking slow strides forward while keeping my concentration on attempting to hit his weak points. Once I got close enough, I was able to examine his armor better. I could see more weak points and where the straps were that was keeping his armor on.

The ice behind him turned to water and swallowed him before solidifying again with him inside it. I ejected a spear from my bracelet and prepared a slice while he was breaking out of the ice cube I'd encased him in. His left bracer fell to the ground and he struck at me with his sword. I blocked the attack and my spear broke in half. I rolled backward and encased him in ice again, holding on to the top half of the spear.

He broke out of the ice and I struck with my half-spear. His right greave fell to the ground. The process repeated again and again. He had no bracers, no greaves, and eventually almost no armor at all. He now wore only his helmet, a white undershirt, and a black pair of suit pants.

The god screamed in frustration and a ring of lightning erupted from his body. I tried to block it, but wasn't quick enough. It hit me full-force, but it didn't kill me. I got to my feet and felt a metallic taste in my mouth and an uncomfortable heat on my skin, but otherwise I felt fine. After a small dose of healing magic, I froze Zeus again and advanced.

Our battle of the elements turned into a duel, except our weapons never touched. I knew his sword was powerful enough to destroy what was left of my spear on contact, so I dodged his strikes instead of parrying.

I moved quickly and fluidly, trying to get behind him. Zeus, no longer hindered by his heavy armor, moved more quickly as well. I moved like water and he moved like lightning. Our dance lasted a while, but not as long as the king of the gods would have liked. Zeus was fighting on slippery terrain, but I was fighting on a piece of myself. The ice moved with me and warped at every footstep. The ice was just as much my advantage as it was his disadvantage.

The fight tipped in my favor when I started landing hits on him. First I cut his arm, then his side, then that same arm again. At this point, the loss of ichor started to slow him down and I was able to strike him again and again. When he was so slow and wounded that I almost felt pity, I stabbed him straight through the back of the knee where my ice spike had struck previously.

Zeus collapsed into a kneeling position and tried to swing at me, but I hardly had to move to dodge it. I pulled my spear out the the front of his knee and he stifled what would have been a scream into a grunt. A pillar of water rose up around his sword arm and froze. He was too weakened to break out of it now.

"Without the gods, this world will — ARGH!" Zeus had cut off mid-sentence due to me impaling my half-spear through his wrist. His grip slackened and I used a water tentacle to take the master bolt/sword from his hand and throw it several feet away.

I ejected another spear from my bracelet and took aim. I muttered, "Vistïko," and launched it through the air. It stabbed the ice right next to the sword and a hole opened up then closed again a few seconds later, swallowing Zeus's sword and my spear.

"You will pay for that," Zeus said with fury dripping from his voice.

"And who will be collecting said debt?" I asked. "I thought you were the best Olympus had. If you can't best me, then who?"

"You can kill every last god, but you'll see your mistakes soon enough. Your actions have consequences, Assassin."

I removed the half-spear from his wrist and aimed it at his throat. The ice that held his arm in place melted, freeing him.

"Get it over with, then," said Zeus.

"Flee," I ordered.

"What?" he said, perplexed.

"Flee," I repeated.

"What game is this?"

"I'm showing you mercy. Run back off to Olympus. Tell what remains of the Olympians of your failure."

"I'm not a coward. You'll have to kill me."

"You _are_ a coward, and you can escape with your life right now."

"I'll never flee."

"Fine." I lowered my spear and raised my left hand. I healed him with magic and watched as all of his wounds closed.

He jumped to his feet and summoned a sword out of thin air. "That was a mistake," he said and swung his new, non-lightning sword. I raised my half-spear and our weapons connected, but his didn't break mine. I struck, he blocked and the dance of blades began anew.

Having been reinvigorated and energized by my healing spell, Zeus had the upper hand. It wasn't long, though, until I created new wounds and he slowed again. He had lightning still and tried to attack me with it, but it was far weaker without his master bolt. Eventually, I had him disarmed and on his knees again.

"Flee," I ordered again.

"I've lived over two-thousand years, Assassin," said Zeus. "It'll be awhile before you begin to test my patience."

"It's not your patience I'm testing."

I healed him and he summoned a new sword and we dueled for the third time. But yet again, he ended up on his knees with ichor pouring from many wounds on his body, but I wouldn't let him die.

"You can taste death right now, can you not?" I asked. "You feel yourself being dragged from existence. It can't be pleasant."

"I'd take death before returning to Olympus a coward," he spat.

I healed him and beat him another time.

"But you're not going to die," I said. "How much pain can you endure for your pride?"

He stared at me expectantly. "Get on with it."

We fought over and over again, and I beat him over and over again. Each time I healed him, I restored less and less to give him the illusion he was getting weaker with each duel. I had to have brought him to the brink of death two dozen times before he finally yielded.

"Fine!" he shouted, though not very loudly due to his wounded state. "I've had enough of your childish games."

I healed him enough so he wouldn't bleed out. "For someone so afraid to die," I said, "you are surprisingly reluctant to live."

"Yeah, right," he said. "As if you're not just going to kill me later when I've outlived my purpose."

"I wonder how you came to that realization so fast," I said. "It must be because you've stood in my shoes thousands of times over while demigods and mortals stood in yours."

"Do you want me to say I'm sorry?"

"Why would I ask you to lie? I've already given you mercy."

My vision blurred and I saw Athena, hiding behind an ice formation. I watched her watch Zeus and I's last duel. Then my sight returned to normal and I watched Zeus get to his feet and take a few steps backward with a limp.

"Wait," I said. I moved my half-spear over to my left hand. "One last thing before you go." In one quick motion I ejected another spear, turned around, and threw it through the air. Right before it touched the ice, it thawed and the spear flew through it unimpeded. Athena let out a yell and fell backward, clutching my spear lodged through her heart.

"Athena!" Zeus cried out. He tried to run to her, but fell over due to his persisting injuries.

"She wanted to watch you die," I said. "But you get to watch _her_ die, having hated you."

I walked over to Athena and retrieved my spear from the ground after she'd withered away into nothingness. I formed a chair out of ice and sat in it.

"Flee," I said one last time.

Zeus got to his feet once again and clenched his fists with a look of pure loathing on his face, but utter helplessness in his eyes. I felt a tug in my gut and he teleported away.

He'll appear on Olympus, in front of all the other gods. They'll see him broken and defeated, and without his symbol of power. The gods will lose all hope, because even their king could not defeat their greatest threat. Zeus will try and restore balance, but it'll already be lost. He'll try and get them to band together to try and defeat me, but they won't join him. They'll question why he's the only one I've faced that came out of the fight alive. He'll lie and they'll see through it. He'll tell the truth and they'll doubt him. They'll know of Athena's death while already believing he'd turned against her. They'll think he was working with me. Some won't believe that but others will. A fight will ensue that destroys Olympus, and all the gods will scatter, unable to trust one another. I'll have won, and have nothing to do but tie up loose ends.

But before I go cleaning up the rubble of a fallen kingdom, I have to do what I've wanted to do for as long as I've had my mission. I'm going to confront my father, and save my mother.


	24. Father

I dropped one of the keys Domino had retrieved from Koilitita on the ground. A tall metal box popped up and the doors slid open, allowing me entrance. I removed Annabeth's invisibility cap from my pocket and put it on as I entered the elevator. Once inside, the doors closed and opened again instantly.

I stepped out and saw a beautiful city that looked gloomy and deserted. Dark clouds blocked out the sun. At the highest point of the city was a mountain peak supporting a castle that looked almost identical to Hades's, except this one was white and gold rather than black. When I was here years ago it had given me an impression of power and wealth, but now Olympus just looked dark and ominous.

While I stayed in one place, watching Zeus's palace in anticipation, I drew a symbol in the dirt with my finger. I cast a spell and it disappeared. Should I ever need to, I could shadow travel back to this exact location, whereas I couldn't before due to this place's restrictions.

A couple of minutes passed and the ground began to vibrate almost unnoticeably. Then the palace exploded and many blinding lights filled the sky. I was deafened by various thundering sounds. Several minutes passed and the last god vacated the burning ruins of a once divine city. Olympus has fallen, and I have won.

But my victory is meaningless when I still have things to do. I dropped the key to Atlantis and stepped into the elevator. The doors closed and the room began to fill up with water. After it passed my mouth, I could still breath just fine. The last of the air was replaced by water and the doors opened.

My eyes met a new city that looked like something out of a science-fiction movie. All of the buildings were very round and supported by tall, thin poles. The heights varied and each building looked distinct, but they all had that alien planet style to them. There were no roads, either. I half expected to see hover cars flying around, or some kind of submarine, but there were none. The ground was barren and all the houses were elevated.

There was one building that looked normal and sat at the ocean floor, however, and it was the largest one there. The palace didn't try to mimic Zeus's palace like Hades's did, but the style was still the same.

After drawing the same symbol and casting the same spell I did at Olympus, I began walking toward my father's castle, my movement not restricted by the water in the slightest; I didn't even feel like I was underwater at all.

Suddenly something torpedoed from the ocean's surface to right in front of my destination — my father was home. A few seconds passed and the sound of a conch horn could be heard, amplified so everything in the ocean could hear it. Another minute went by and all of the doors in the city opened. Merpeople swam out holding weapons and swarmed toward their king's castle.

I followed them through the city that had been motionless only moments before. As I walked I noticed that there were only mermen answering Poseidon's call. I looked through the windows of some of the houses and saw mermaids with their children, watching with nervous and curious looks on their faces, but staying indoors.

I pushed that thought to the back of my mind as I continued walking. I eventually stopped a couple hundred feet away from the palace because that's how far back the crowd went. I was unable to make my way through without bumping into any of the mermen, so I jumped and suddenly felt the water that surrounded me. I swam up until I could see the door to Poseidon's palace, in front of which was a raised dais where the sea god himself stood.

I found a building that was a good vantage point and stood on it, waiting for whatever my father was going to do. Several more minutes passed until it looked like every merman in the city was there and Poseidon began to talk.

"My faithful citizens," he said in a voice that boomed over the entire city. "I have unfortunate news. Olympus has disbanded and all the gods have gone their separate ways. My brother, Zeus, appears to be a traitor like my other brother as he faced the Assassin and lived, but could not bring us his corpse. Whether or not he has sided with him is unimportant. We are on our own from here on out. The Assassin thinks he has proved himself to be unstoppable, but we will not give up hope.

"I want the city's security increased tenfold. I want guards constantly patrolling every single street. I want male children to begin training at age eight. If you are unmarried, claim a mermaid old enough to bear children and begin producing sons and daughters. Increasing Atlantis's population is of paramount importance.

"I want my dutiful cyclopes to be extra vigilant. You will watch your underlings closely and punish disobedience far more severely. You will execute any prisoners so we're not wasting men guarding prisons. You will report directly to me, now that the Nereids have abandoned our us along with their father.

"I demand absolute loyalty from everyone within the city walls, and I need it now more than ever. I believe the Assassin will soon be coming for me. If he comes here, he will destroy the peace we've known for the past two thousand years under my rule and tear apart your families. He will bring nothing but anarchy with him and we must refuse to let him. We can and will stop him because he'll be facing us on our home turf."

By then I was sure he wasn't going to say anything else that was important. The only thing he said I cared about was the part about executing prisoners. As long as I killed him quickly I could free my mother before his citizens obeyed his command. I swam toward him as he continued rambling and planted my feet on the dais, once again feeling like the water wasn't even there.

I tried placing my hand on his shoulder so I could shadow travel the both of us out of his domain, but suddenly my hands and legs were bound in ice and I was pulled backward onto my knees. He turned around and pulled my cap off, tossing it to the side.

"You really thought I couldn't sense you, Assassin?" he said with a smirk.

"You can't even acknowledge that I'm your son?" I said. I tried to manipulate the ice, but his will over it was stronger than mine.

"The Assassin tried to kill me, but now he's bound," he turned and announced. "I will execute Olympus's greatest threat right here for your viewing pleasure. History is being made." He held his hand out and his trident flew through the water into his palm. "It is poetic that he killed so many gods with his trident, and will be killed by one too."

He turned back toward me and I muttered a spell I'd developed for this exact occasion. The water all around me began to bubble and my ice shackles began to melt as a layer of of intense heat covered my skin. The bubbles from the constantly evaporating water shrouded my eyesight, but I could feel everything around me through the water. I "saw" an ice spike shoot toward my heart but it melted before it made contact and I was unharmed.

I heard him tell his soldiers to stand down and then he started to throw me around by controlling the water. He tried to pull me in so he could stab me, but I was able to resist by manipulating the steam to push me in the opposite direction. So instead of trying to stab me, he opted for using the water to continue tossing me about like a ragdoll. The minimal amount of steam my spell was constantly producing wasn't enough to counteract all of it, so I accumulated a few bruises from being slammed into the palace wall and the ground repeatedly.

Trying not to panic, I attempted to use my needle gun to shoot him, but the projectiles moved too slowly underwater to be effective, and I eventually lost my grip on it. I also tried using magic against him, but the mystical energy moved differently underwater as well so he was able to dodge all of them. I tried thinking of a plan to get close enough to grab him without dying.

I'd been preparing for this fight for a while now, but no matter how much time I spent in the mystical realm, I couldn't create a spell that could help me fight the god of the sea while in the sea. I had many attempts to destabilize water or suspend it in a radius, but it was all irrelevant because he had immediate access to millions of gallons of more water to work against my spells with. All spell ideas I had that would work were way too complex for me to create and would be too draining on me to use. In the end I had to accept that the only way for me to win, was to lose.

After Poseidon stopped throwing me around momentarily (due to either exhaustion or pity) I got to my feet and advanced toward him, which would be a stupid thing to do if I didn't know what I was doing. I used magic on myself to temporarily slow my blood flow and the water pushed on my back, pulling me toward him and I didn't resist it. He held the end of his trident forward and my heart was headed straight for its middle prong. At the last second, I used the steam surrounding me to pull myself upward a few inches and two prongs went straight into my gut while the third cut my side.

He had a triumphant look on his face as I clenched my teeth through the pain. As I gripped the trident with my left hand, I watched a steady stream of blood float up in front of me.

"How does it feel, oh son of mine?" said my father. "After all this time, after all of your victories, you're killed by your own father. That has to sting, right?" His eyes were focused on my face, which was exactly what I needed.

I slowly and carefully maneuvered my left hand so any spell I cast aimed straight at his right hand, which still held the end of the trident he'd impaled me with.

"It could only end this way, Perseus," he said. "My wife faded because of you. My daughter faded because of you. You couldn't get away with all of it."

"I'm not dead yet," I said through gritted teeth. I used the same spell I'd used to defeat Ares and felt it hit its mark. With my right hand, I gripped his left wrist and focused on a location I'd scouted out months ago. The shadows swallowed us both and spit us out in a valley in Antarctica, which I knew to be the driest place on Earth.

As soon as we appeared, I used a concussive spell that threw him several feet backward. I grimaced as I pulled his trident out of my gut and healed my wounds, starting to feel the magical exhaustion set on. While my father was slowly getting to his feet, still under the influence of my spell, I muttered a word and threw his trident, sending it to the Underworld.

By then, my father had shaken off my spell and gotten to his feet. He tried to pull moisture from the air, only to realize there wasn't any. Instead, he pulled all the water that had soaked into his clothes and was left on his skin and formed it into two compacted ice daggers. He ran toward me and I ejected a spear from my bracelet.

When I blocked his first dagger with my spear, I heard it give off a _clang_ like metal would, only higher pitched, and didn't see any shards of ice break off. They must have contained a lot more condensed water than I'd first assumed.

When it came to weapon of choice, Poseidon clearly had the advantage. I was able to block some of his strikes with my spear, but most I had to dodge or use my hand to grab his wrist to prevent myself from getting stabbed again.

We dueled for a few minutes and it tipped in my favor more and more as time went on. I studied his fighting patterns and adapted to them, allowing me to stop defending as much and attack more. Twice, I disarmed him of one of his daggers, but he was able to telekinetically return them to his hand. But it wasn't until I opened wounds all over his body that the daggers melted and he was too weak to continue fighting.

"Where is my mother?" I asked, pressing the tip of my spear against his chest above his heart.

He looked up at me with a strange expression, and then began to laugh after a few seconds.

"Where is she?" I yelled.

He laughed harder.

"You can stop laughing and tell me where she is," I said angrily, "Or I could kill you now and search all of Atlantis myself."

"She's dead, you fucking moron!" he said, and continued laughing.

"Lying won't save you."

"I killed her after Hyperion killed you!" he stopped laughing to say. "You live in the Underworld. How could you not know?" He resumed laughing maniacally.

A terrible feeling appeared in the base of my stomach. The first time he said it, I didn't believe it for a second. But now I began to doubt.

"No," I said. "If she was dead, Hades would have known."

"He does know! Why do you think I'm laughing?"

Anger bubbled up inside of me. "Liar!" My spear pierced his heart and he continued laughing until his last breath.

I shadow traveled back to Atlantis and searched the entire city. The merpeople were scrambling around in a panic. The cyclopes were chasing down the merpeople and killing the ones they caught. I killed any cyclops I came across in my search, as I knew they were oppressors as much as Poseidon was.

I searched for hours, but came up empty. My mother wasn't in Atlantis. I was resigned to believe that she really was dead and Hades hid it from me, or Poseidon moved her somewhere else. I tried to believe it was the latter, but I knew deep inside me it wasn't. My anger only got stronger as I fell back into the Underworld.

I landed and saw Hades sitting at the table. The others might have been there too, but my eyes only saw him. He got to his feet, and looked at me apprehensively.

"Is it true?" I said in barely more than a whisper, because if I'd tried to say it any louder I would have shouted it and I still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Hades looked me straight in the eyes and quietly said "yes" without having to ask what I meant

The table exploded and I found myself with my hand gripping his shirt, pinning him against the wall with a spear pointed at his throat. I heard voices behind me but didn't hear what they said. I felt magic repel the voices' owners without me meaning to do it.

"Why?" I yelled.

With a solemn look on his face, all he said is, "there are no good gods, Perseus."

"My mother has been dead this whole time and you never told me! I could have saved her! If you hadn't talked me into waiting, she'd be alive right now!"

His eyes locked on the tip of my spear. "Do it. I deserve it."

My heart was pounding, and no matter how betrayed I felt I knew I wouldn't kill him. I turned and threw him to the ground. I saw Zoë, Bianca, Nico, and Domino at the other end of the room, silent. There were chunks of wood everywhere but none of them seemed hurt.

Hades picked himself up but remained on his knees.

"You were like a brother to me," I said. "I trusted you. Why did you do it?"

"I made a choice," he said. "If I'd told you then you'd have killed Poseidon at the wrong time and ruined the plan."

"So you didn't trust me to act rationally? You took away my right to grieve? And all so you could continue using me to enact your personal vendetta against your fellow gods who wouldn't let you sit on a chair next to them on Olympus?"

"Yes. I did it for selfish reasons. I'd do it again because my choice lead us to the victory we achieved today. I'm sorry." He paused for a moment. "Kill me. It was always going to end this way."

" _Do it_ ," an echoey voice said. Hestia appeared behind Hades and no one seemed to notice her. " _He deserves it. He betrayed you_."

I blinked and she was gone. It was just a hallucination. My eyes returned to Hades. I wanted to kill him; I wanted to punish him. He needed to pay for his betrayal. That's why I left the Underworld without the intention of returning, because I knew I wouldn't have been able to stop myself if I'd stayed a second longer.

* * *

 **When I wrote last chapter I included an author's note telling people to ask me any question they had about the story. Below are the questions I got and the answers I had for them. I initially released this as a separate author's note only chapter which I've since removed and pasted right here. Any references to "next chapter" refers to this chapter.  
**

 **Q: Can we get the Poseidon chapter first, please?**

 **A: I'm currently working on the next chapter and it'll be out as soon as it's finished. This doesn't delay it at all.**

 **Q: uh no text?**

 **A: That was a mistake. I didn't mean to upload that yet, and have since removed it.**

 **Q: Why did he loose Krynose?**

 **A: I assume that's an auto-corrected "Krinos". I've been realizing that I made Percy extremely powerful and I wanted to give him a handicap. Losing the trident also makes for a powerful move in Percy's character development, which you'll see rounded off next chapter. And Krinos is more important than just being Percy's weapon and that'll be explained later, but that's all I'll say on that. ;) (Also, if you're confused as to HOW he lost Krinos, then you probably missed Chapter 21: Tales. You'll want to go back and read that if that's what you meant).**

 **Q: So who is going to maintain the domains? New gods?**

 **A: I'd given thought to that idea a while back. When I killed Percy, I intended him to train with the gods who were going to replace the Olympians, but I changed my mind as I began working on the Outerlands chapters. There aren't going to be any new gods or deities to replace the Olympians, but I do have an explanation as to how the domains have remained in balance with the gods of said domains dead and it'll be explained later. (I've already hinted at it).**

 **Q: Where did the idea of Domino come from? What caused you to come up with her and put her in?**

 **A: Domino kind of answered this one for me. "This plan you're working on cannot exist without me, as everything on that board is rubbish." - Domino, Chapter 16: Domino. I had to have a way for Percy's team to be able to out-think the combined wits of all the gods, otherwise they'd fail. Domino was my solution to that. I wouldn't say she's a deus ex machina, but she _was_ kind of an easy answer, I'll admit. But I've come to develop her character some more and I think she fits in well with the flow of the story. Also, I know no one asked, but why did I give her super speed? Honestly, it was to pace up the story a bit. I could have added several extra chapters that involved Percy sneaking into Olympus or some other place to steal certain gods' symbols of powers, but I didn't want the story to drag on for no reason. Domino's super speed saved me having to write those filler chapters.**

 **Q: Is the story's cold effect intentional? There feels like there's not really any attention to characters and emotions outside of the plot and the immediate emotional consequences of the actions taken by the characters during the plot. This leaves a cold feeling to the story, and I'm wondering of that was intentional.**

 **A: I never set out to have this type of story, but in the back of my mind I always cared more about portraying the plot rather than the characters. And with the way I've transformed canon Percy into the Assassin of Olympus, the lack of emotions and explorations of how the characters react to any given situation kind of makes sense. The story is in first person, so it's going to adapt to how Percy thinks. He spends most of his time training and developing magic, and only stops to kill gods, and that's what the story shows. I don't know if I regret it or not, but this is how the story wound up. What I'll say is that in the coming chapters, there's going to be some pretty emotional interactions.**

 **Q: How'd you go about planning for the story? Did you have the whole plot from the beginning, or did you make it up as you went?**

 **A: When I wrote the first chapter all I had was an idea: what if the gods were evil and what if Percy could kill them? I went with that and started to write without an idea for the whole scope of the story. This almost backfired horribly as I went two months without working on the second chapter and thought I'd given up on the story, but then I felt suddenly inspired to continue it. I started getting ideas for the plot and stored them away in my head. I eventually did write down an outline for the story and planned the rest of it out which has helped me keep a nice pace and put out chapters as frequently as I'm able to.**

 **Q: When did you know what order you wanted the gods' deaths in?**

 **A: I always knew some of the later ones would be last, like Zeus and Poseidon. But like I said, I didn't have a set in stone plan for how the plot would progress at first. It was before I started writing Chapter 16 that I went more in depth on my outline and planned out that chapter to this one. That was when I knew the order of the rest of the gods' deaths, excluding the ones following Poseidon.**

 **Thank you for all the questions, but please keep them coming if you have them. When writing, things feel obvious to me because I already know all of the information, but I might have made some things vague and confusing without realizing. If you're confused about anything, speak your mind and I'll try and clear it up in the later chapters in a clean way that doesn't feel like exposition.**


	25. Down

A few months after my father's death, I lie in bed in my own apartment. I paid for it by developing alchemical magic in the mystical realm and producing solid gold to sell. When trying to figure out where I'd be sleeping from now on, I came to the surprising realization that I'm eighteen years old, making me of legal age to rent an apartment. Ever since leaving Yancy Academy my life had changed so much that I never gave trivial things like birthdays a second thought.

In my hands I held the little black notebook that Hades had given me so long ago. I'd crossed out most of the lists as they'd all become irrelevant after Domino joined us, but it still had all the names of the gods in it, most being crossed off already. Since Olympus's disbanding, I'd been able to cross off the names of Dionysus, Nike, Iris, Nemesis, Aphrodite, and Tyche. The only names remaining were Zeus, Hermes, and Hades. I'd added Hades's name to the list out of anger, but no matter how much contempt I held for him I'd never be able to bring myself to actually kill the friend I'd once trusted more than anyone.

I closed the book and pocketed it before getting to my feet. I glanced out the window and saw a dark sky as I groggily walked to the kitchen for a glass of water. I'd been having trouble sleeping lately, and the man standing in my kitchen was related to the reason why.

"Hades is a god," said Thanatos in an echoey voice. "Your mission will never be complete until you kill him."

I ignored the hallucination as I filled a cup at the sink.

"He betrayed you. He pretended to be your friend for years, and stabbed you in the back. He's earned his death, more than any of us have."

I picked up a knife and threw it. The blade flew straight through his face and lodged itself in the wall.

"You want to destroy the balance of the world, but can't even finish the job by killing the one who deserves it the most."

It was Hestia's curse. Her little departing gift plagued me with constant hallucinations of the gods I'd killed, telling me all the thoughts I'd suppressed in the back of my mind, making me hear the things I least wanted to hear. When going to bed, they constantly berated me, making it extremely difficult to fall asleep. And when I did finally drift off, I had nightmares that often woke me up in the middle of the night, just like tonight.

I'd given up on finding relief from the curse just recently. I'd spent many hours in the mystical realm attempting to counteract the effects, but I'd failed completely. Magic could not lift my curse or even dilute its effects. I was permanently stuck with it; I've come to accept that fact, as much as I hated it.

I threw together some food and began to eat an early breakfast, as I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again if I'd tried. Thanatos continued tormenting me while I ate and disappeared after I finished. I began considering what to do with my blissful moment of silence. I decided on seeing Zoë before Aphrodite appeared, telling me the same things she'd said countless times before.

"You've forgotten why you ended things with her the first time," she said. "You're only going to hurt her. She deserves better than a murderer. The longer you continue pretending you can have a "happily ever after" with her, the deeper it'll cut her when it's over."

It was never going to be over, of course. I'd ended things between us on the advice of Hades, who was already responsible for me losing my mother. I got back together with her less than a week after learning of Hades's betrayal because the war was already won, and there was no need to continue letting him keep another woman I cared about out of my life.

"You're only misleading her. You're putting her under the delusion that you two can have a normal life together when this is all over. You know that's not true. It was never going to be true."

I sighed, and sat down. Zoë wasn't expecting me today anyway, so she wouldn't miss me if I didn't show up. Aphrodite smiled and disappeared, having accomplished her task. I opted to workout instead. I could just see her later or tomorrow.

I took off my shirt and dropped to the ground. I did twenty-six pushups before I heard a noise. I got to my feet and put my shirt back on and saw Domino floating a couple inches off the ground.

"You're ready for your second fight with Zeus?" she asked.

For a little bit I'd held contempt against her for hiding my mother's death from me too, but it didn't last. Every decision Domino has made has been the right one, and while Hades hid the truth to avoid taking responsibility for talking me out of saving her, Domino hid it for the sake of the mission and because it was Hades's job to tell me. My mother was already dead when I met Domino, so she could have done nothing to help me save her while Hades could have.

I walked over to my bedroom where there was a loose floorboard. I lifted it and pulled out an ichor-stained top half of a broken spear. I returned to the living room and said, "yeah."

"He won't be hard to find," she said. "He's on Olympus."

I nodded and shadow traveled away.

Domino had said a long time ago that after Olympus had fallen, it didn't matter in which order the rest of the gods died. While I could have just picked off those that remained by myself, I relied on Domino's judgement instead. Every once in a while Domino would pop into my apartment and ask if I was ready to kill "insert god here". I found it simpler this way.

I appeared in a city of ruins, that looked to have been abandoned for a thousand years, but had actually still been in its prime just a few months ago. Trekking through the streets littered with marble, stone, and dust, a conflicting feeling came over me. Olympus had once been a beautiful city, more pristine and elegant than any other in history. Even though the sight symbolized my own victory, I couldn't help but feel guilt and sadness that I'd been the cause of the destruction of something so glorious.

I came to the edge and highest point of Olympus. I stepped over a threshold onto a large cracked floor that was mostly devoid of rubble. The explosion must have thrown all of the pieces of Zeus's palace away from where it once stood.

Right about where the central throne would have been, sat a dirty man wearing ragged clothing. He sat cross legged and stared into his lap, his long disheveled hair shrouding his face. Even though I didn't make any effort to muffle my approach, he didn't look up.

I sat down five feet across from him. I felt a strange sadness come over me, as I stared at the fallen king. I couldn't explain where the emotion came from, but it was prominent.

"If you're here to play more games with me, Assassin," said Zeus, "save your breath. Kill me and get it over with."

"I just want to talk first," I said.

"What is there to say?" He looked up and stared at me with the face of a broken man. "What do you _want_ me to say?"

"I just want to know what's on your mind. I won, and Olympus is dead."

A long silence ensued, until he finally said, "Prometheus."

"What?"

"He created the first humans and gave them fire. They evolved and became intelligent, consummating like rabbits until there wasn't an inch of land that didn't have a human on it. They invented rules of morality and now I'm being punished for ignoring them. All of this — you, me, these ruins — it started way back then with him."

"You're where you are because of your own actions."

"My actions would never have been deemed 'evil' were it not for his creations. I was born before that, in a simpler and purer time where I never would have had to worry about what was right and wrong."

"The world evolved. You should have too. Two thousand years have passed and the main part of you is still living back in Ancient Greece, with the original Mount Olympus."

"Why should I be expected to bow to the wills of lesser beings? I was a king!"

"You were a tyrant. You watched hundreds of kingdoms rise and fall throughout history. Did you seriously think yours would be any different?"

"No. I always knew the stronger would come to take power, but I expected a god. That's why I ruled with an iron fist, so no god more fit to rule than I would ever be born."

"Yet you forget that you were the creation of a weaker being: your father. I'm the creation of a god, and became stronger than my father, same as you. If I'd never been born, it could have just as easily been your daughter or other future demigod children of yours."

"You forget that my brothers and I made a pact to not have any more demigod children."

"It was because of a prophecy that never came true."

"Broken by the subject of said prophecy, creating an even worse fate for Olympus."

"How is it worse? Olympus would have been destroyed and the gods overthrown, and your father would have ruled in your stead."

"The world would have survived had the titans replaced us. You created a world inhabited solely by beings who don't know the difference between destroying the world and breathing."

"But what's a world without you for it to bow down to?"

"You really think me so self-centered that I'd rather see the world destroyed than watch anyone else rule over it?"

"I do."

"Then you don't know me as well as you thought. I should've expected as much out of someone as naive as you."

"So you're just insulting me now?"

"I'm bored of this conversation, Assassin. I was ready to accept my death when I challenged you. Get on with it."

"I thought you of all people would have some departing words."

"How courteous of you to wait."

I gave him a few seconds, then said, "If you insist," and pierced his heart with the top half of the spear he'd broken in our first encounter. I left the broken spear behind and shadow-traveled home.

Hermes was the last god to kill, now.

* * *

 **A/N: More answers to questions asked between the publishing of the last chapter and this chapter:**

 **Q: (A few guest reviews from who I assume is the same person)**

 **A: I don't understand most of what you're trying to say, but I'll answer what I did interpret. You mentioned gods returning, which won't happen. They're dead permanently. The demigods don't know of the monstrous things the gods did because I fabricated them for the sake of this story. The gods hide them well, and any bad deed done by the gods in the actual myths is acceptable by the canon demigods so it's acceptable by the version of demigods in this story. Percy has not thought of what will happen once the gods are gone. He knows how powerful the Entity is and trusts he knows what he's doing.**

 **Q: What did (insert god here) do?**

 **A: There were a couple of these about Hecate, Charon, and Thanatos. Like I said above, I fabricated most of the gods' evilness for the sake of the story. I purposefully left their thousands of heinous actions vague while trying to convey in the very first chapter that they were terrible. Every single god has done thousands of immoral things that would be treated with the death penalty in most mortal governments. I wrote this story with an alternate version of the gods from the canon, and that's why Percy is right to kill them. The answer to the question is simply: a lot.**

 **Q: What is going to happen to all the mortals?**

 **A: Nothing at all. They'll go about their lives as normal, no longer at risk of being randomly plucked up and murdered by a god.**

 **Q: Which gods are left?**

 **A: Answered in this chapter.**

 **Q: Is it possible for Percy to get Krinos back?**

 **A: No, but you'll be seeing more of it and there will be explanations to its mysteries.**


	26. Consequences

Several days after my second encounter with Zeus, I returned to my apartment late at night to find two people in my living room. One was Domino who was staring at my television and the second was the god I'd most recently killed, standing next to the T.V. and watching me with a smug expression.

". . . amount of casualties remains unknown, but reports say it could be well between one and two thousand or even more. No one knows yet what caused the building to collapse. Terrorism is suspected but we can't know for sure until we have more information on the Empire State Building's mysterious and sudden collapse. We will now cut to ground footage from reporters on scene."

My heart sank as I slowly walked toward the T.V. and stood by Domino. I watched in horror as a cameraman filmed crowds of people running from what looked like a dense fog in a panic. The shot continued for a bit then cut to aerial footage from a helicopter, showing a massive dust cloud slowly parting to show a pile of rubble where the Empire State Building once stood.

"For those just tuning in," said a reporter's voice. "About ten minutes ago the Empire State Building completely collapsed, crushing several buildings in the vicinity as well."

"Domino," I said in a small voice. "What. . .?" It was all I could say through my shock and confusion.

She turned to look at me and had a sad expression on her face. "I had no idea. This was completely unexpected. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late for me to do anything — too late to save anyone."

"What happened?" I demanded.

"My best guess is that with so few gods remaining alive, Zeus was the only thing holding Mount Olympus to existence. After he died, its infrastructure corroded and it began to dematerialize, until just now when it fell onto the building it once hovered above and destroyed it."

"This is on you, Assassin," said Zeus. "You're the cause of this."

"How did you not see this coming?" I asked the android. "You're supposed to know everything!"

"Well I don't, okay?" she blurted, sounding genuinely upset. "The death of gods, the destruction of the pantheon — it's unprecedented. I had no data to go off of to lead me to the conclusion that this was even a possibility. I can't know what can't be learned, and no one besides the Entity could have known this would happen."

Why didn't the Entity warn me about this? Why didn't I see a premonition of the future? If I'd known what was going to happen, I could have told Domino and she could have zipped everyone in the area to safety before the building collapsed. Unless. . .

The reporter said the building collapsed ten minutes ago. I was with Zoë then, and in the time leading up to it. Maybe I didn't get a vision because of what I was doing at the time — because of what _we_ were doing. I was preoccupied and people died because of it.

Any way I looked at it, it was my fault those people are now dead. Me killing Zeus caused the building to collapse in the first place. And I was too busy with my girlfriend for my inherited ability from Atropos to kick in and warn me. Hades had warned me that my relationship with Zoë could compromise the mission, and I ignored that good advice out of spite. My hatred for Hades cost people their lives.

* * *

A couple of days later, I shadow traveled outside an abandoned warehouse with boarded up doors and windows. I used magic to break down the door and step over the threshold. Inside was completely empty and dark except for a table in the middle with a lantern on it. Illuminated by the lantern was a man, sitting at the table in a chair. When I got closer, I saw what appeared to be a checkerboard on the table with black and white tiles.

"The game is called Petteia," said Hermes. "Care to play?"

"You're not going to fight me?" I said bemusedly.

"No," he said. "I'm no match for you, so there'd be no point in trying. I do wish to have a conversation, if you're not in a hurry."

For some reason I trusted it wasn't a trick and sat down. Hermes explained the rules of Petteia and made the first move. I made mine and the game began.

"What are you going to do when it's all over?" Hermes asked.

I was taken aback by this. This was a question I'd asked myself thousands of times over and procrastinated answering a thousand times over. I had no idea where I'd go or what'd I be once Hermes was dead. My fear of the future was probably what led me to sit and talk with him rather than just get it over with and kill him instantly. Once he was dead, that was it; it'd be over.

"I don't know," I admitted.

"I thought as much," he said. "You really should figure it out, and soon. The world is rapidly changing because of you, for better or for worse."

"What do you mean the world is changing?"

"It's a new era. The gods held the world to one state, and without us it'll evolve to a new one. You've already seen one of the effects: the collapse of the Empire State Building. Everything is going to start changing, and everyone will see it."

"I don't understand how, though." I made a move and took one of his tiles, but his next move took my last two. He cleared the board and set the tiles up again.

"We'll start with the mist. Hecate once manipulated it and wielded it, but now she's gone. The other gods restricted it in her absence, maybe without even knowing it, but once there's no one restraining it, it'll grow unchecked. It'll warp and change how it functions. Mortals will most likely be affected."

"What are you saying? Superheroes and supervillains are going to start popping up?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "Could be, could not be. What I do know is that it's reacting chaotically."

"What can be done about it?"

"I don't believe anything can be done. The mist won't destroy the world, but it'll change it and the mortals _will_ notice it."

I saw what I thought to be a mistake he made, and thought I saw a way to win in the next two moves, but he won after my next move. The game restarted.

"The monsters are going extinct as well," said Hermes. "As the pantheon fades, they run out of life force and stay dead."

"I don't see how that's a bad thing."

"It ties in to the mist thing. Mythical monsters are magical, and feed on the mist. When they're all gone, the mist will be restricted even less. They're also a prominent part of the food chain. Without the predators, the population of their prey will increase and _their_ prey will decrease. Time will tell if the change to the ecosystem will be good or bad."

"You sure prepared a lot of things to say to make me feel guilty."

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. I understand why you did what you did, even if I don't agree with it. What's done is done. Even though I believe your actions were a mistake, it doesn't mean I think them irreparable. I'm just trying to help you save the world from the consequences of your actions."

"And you say you're not trying to make me feel guilty." I took my turn, and won the game. "Well how about that?"

"Nice play," he commented as he began resetting the board.

"Any other examples of how I destroyed the world?"

"Well the gods were more involved in more mortal affairs than you might have thought. Thousands of times we've prevented cataclysmic events that would have definitely been the end of the human race."

"You let the Holocaust and Black Plague slip through the cracks."

"The world survived them. Anyway, those were caused by Ares and Apollo respectively."

"A clear example of the gods not caring for human life, and being a danger to the world. Why would you stop alleged events if you care so little whether humans live or die?"

"While the gods were here before the humans, the world has tethered itself around them rather than us. Without civilization, the gods would cease to exist."

I moved my piece and took two of his. "You forget that Domino is perfectly capable of foreseeing any future 'cataclysmic' events and preventing them."

"Perhaps," he agreed. "Doubtful, though I am, to trust a machine with the protection of the world, it'll be more capable than the humans."

I took his last piece. He seemed to have said all there was on the subject, and as we started a new game, he started a new topic.

"Do you know of Poseidon's most important job?" Hermes asked.

"No," I replied.

"In the deepest parts of the oceans various dangerous creatures are contained by your father, or at least were. The humans haven't discovered that much about the ocean, and do not even know of the vast majority's existence. Charybdis and Scylla were two of said creatures until Poseidon tamed them and used them as he saw fit. These aren't magical creatures either, mind you. They're as normal as fish or sharks, and now have free reign to terrorize wherever the water touches."

I remained silent.

"The Underworld will suffer similar fates to Olympus and the sea. Once Hades is gone, the Underworld's last tether will be severed and it'll cease to exist. Death will become the end for humans, and they'll know no afterlife."

"That's irrelevant because I'm not going to kill Hades."

He seemed surprised at this. "I think you should, and not because he betrayed the gods and me. You've already killed too many gods to spare one now. You've set into motion the death of a pantheon, and unless it completely dies, the world will never fully be able to move on. A part of it will still remain in the era of the gods, and the world will be worse off for it. It's the same reason I believe you should kill me."

"You want to die?"

"Of course not. I wholly believe the world would have been in a much better state had you never come along and started killing gods, but a world with all the gods dead will fare better than a world with one or two gods left alive, clinging to the past. You need to finish what you started."

No matter how much sense he made, I would _not_ accept that I'd eventually kill Hades. Even if I wanted to, I'd never be able to bring myself to do it. At one point Hades was my closest friend, and his betrayal won't change that memory.

"You know the mere existence of divinity protected the world from the supernatural, right?" he asked. "Without us, the world is exposed and vulnerable to anything."

"Vulnerable to what?"

"I have no idea. But anything at all could be coming. It's a very real possibility. Trying to make the world mundane will hurt it more than you could know.

"You're just giving me another reason not to kill Hades."

"No, I'm not. You think he'll continue on to live another two millennia if you don't kill him? He'll fade within the century, maybe even decade, being the only god left. You can't undo your actions." He paused for a moment. "Do you regret them?"

"No," I said instinctively, but I wasn't sure if it was true. I still believed the gods deserved to face justice, but now I wasn't sure the world was better off without them.

The doubt in my voice was all he needed to hear.

"You've created this new world, Percy Jackson," said Hermes, "and now you must live in it."

"So what's your suggestion then?" I asked. "How do I fix all my alleged mistakes?"

"Technology is the way for humanity to move forward. If they can innovate enough, they can evolve with the world and still come out on top."

I wasn't sure what to do with this information as I took his last piece and won the game.

"That's two-three," said Hermes. "You win, congratulations."

"You're not going to set it up again?"

"I've said all there is to say."

"Oh." I felt a lot of conflicting things at the moment. Even though I still vividly remember the horrible things Hermes did, it felt wrong to kill someone who'd just given me so much valuable information, and acted so non-hostile and helpful to me.

We stood at the same time and he extended his left hand to me. I shook it, as I ejected a spear from my bracelet and pierced his chest.

I walked out of the warehouse, not feeling as relieved as I'd thought I would. It was over. I'd killed the last god. My job was done. And yet I still felt like I was carrying the fate of the world on my shoulders. I had so many thoughts running through my head that I needed help to sort through them all. A strange sadness came to the back of my mind as I decided to consult Zoë with my new information, and I had no idea where it stemmed from.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Questions asked after the last chapter was posted:  
**

 **Q: The mist should be gone by now, right?  
** **A: No, as this chapter answered.**

 **Q: Why are you such an amazing writer?  
** **A: This was a guest review, and so some might jump to the conclusion that I wrote it myself. I didn't though, trust me. Anyway, I do NOT consider myself an amazing writer. I take pride in my ideas and try my best, but I have a lot to learn about writing and a long way to go before I consider myself a good writer.**

 **Q: Can you make Hades apologize to Percy?  
** **A: Bro, that's just not how this works. I've already planned out the rest of their relationship, and it'd be terrible writing to just be Hades saying he's sorry and Percy being cool with him again. You'll see what happens next chapter.**

 **Also, I'm going to answer a question that no one asked, but I expected it to be asked.**

 **Q: How can Percy kill gods? And why don't they just go into their giant forms or divine forms and just destroy him? Or why don't they just turn him into an animal or something? Aren't they able to be in multiple places at once? They're gods!  
A: I wrote in his ability to kill gods in a very specific way. The way it works is that he (without knowing it) mortal-izes the gods he faces. What I mean is, he makes them literally mortal (mortal being defined as a being with the ability to die). He doesn't turn them into mortals, but he constrains their power to a single, vulnerable form. This form is still godlike, but is able to die. There's my explanation.**


	27. Penance

After a long discussion with Zoë immediately following the death of Hermes, I no longer felt completely confused. I knew what I had to do now and I knew what was in my immediate future. However, I still felt conflicted about many things, and never before have I been so unsure of everything. I felt lost. But I was certain about one thing: I had to talk to Hades, even though I won't kill him.

After saying goodbye to Zoë, I walked for a bit outside of her camp, and pulled the last key out of my pocket. I activated it and stepped into the elevator, then stepped out after the doors opened and closed, revealing the Underworld.

In front of me I saw a long path leading to Hades's palace, and I began walking it. I could have shadow traveled straight there, without ever having used the key, but now more than ever I needed to hold onto the present and push the future further away.

I passed through Persephone's garden and a dreariness passed over me as I glanced at all the wilted and dead plants. I had no doubt this place had once been beautiful, but just like everything else, I was the cause of its death.

Time seemed to speed up as I came up to the black castle and entered through the front doors. Traversing through the hallways and up the staircases, I found no one. It was completely silent. I climbed a spiral staircase and passed over a threshold, out onto the roof. Standing at the edge and looking at the entirety of the Underworld was its ruler.

"It's done, I assume?" asked Hades. His voice sounded gruff and tired, unlike his usual smooth and confident.

I walked up beside him and nodded, marveling for the last time at the sight. From here I could see the Fields of Punishment, Fields of Asphodel, and Elysium at the same time. It was a humbling feeling, having every single deceased human in history in your field of view at once.

Before I could think of something to say, Hades began to speak. "You remember the riddle I gave you some time ago?"

I nodded again. I'd been thinking about it a lot recently.

"The Entity gave a message to Dominatreazecks to relay to me, when she first came to us," he said. "Maria was the purest woman on Earth, and the love of my life. A while after she chose rebirth, I attempted to find her in her new life and failed. I'd given up hope on ever seeing her again, but then Domino showed up and told me her name and where to find her. It took me a while to build up the courage to go see her, and even then I didn't actually talk to her. I only observed from a distance. Seeing her humbled me, more than I'd thought possible. I felt guilty enough to seek you out with the intent to admit my lie, but decided against it at the last second. But seeing you look at me with undoubted trust in your eyes, I had to say something."

I remembered that day. I'd stood in this very spot, taking a break from the tedium of just training and working in the mystical realm while waiting to kill my next target. I vividly recall my excitement for it to be all over, in my blissful naivete.

"You were the lion," he said, "and I was the mouse. I'd heard the fable from a mortal, a few centuries ago, and warped it only slightly to fit the situation. You chased me down with your loyalty, and I hid in my selfishness. Domino came around and kept my secret, giving me the golden apple I needed to continue attacking you with my lies. I took Domino not telling you as validation for my actions. But eventually it began to rain, and my secret was out. I could not hide any more. In the end I'll always be a god, and you'll always be a godslayer."

It made sense now. I was so focused on figuring out what the fable meant, that I never considered the fact that Hades being the one that told it to me might have been part of the riddle.

"I don't know if I'm ready to forgive you yet," I said, "and I'm not sure I ever will. But I'm not going to kill you."

"I don't deserve forgiveness, and I never sought it. I lived my entire life indifferent to the cruelty of my peers. I was in love with one of them, so I still considered them all my allies. It wasn't until my own wife fell in love with Hecate and had constant affairs with her that I realized how alone I was. My dying love for my wife didn't go away for a few centuries after that, until I finally met Maria. I loved her a thousand times more than I'd ever loved Persephone. Losing her broke me completely. I put Nico and Bianca away with the Lotus-eaters for their protection, but also because I felt like I'd never be a good enough father to them in the state I was in. It was then that I vowed vengeance against my brother and everyone who looked the other way at what he did; all who remained loyal after his atrocity. I waited for my opportunity, and then you came with a power I never expected. It was all I could have hoped for. I was so consumed with wanting to avenge Maria, that I took a drastic measure to ensure the success of your mission." He sighed. "I'm truly sorry for betraying your trust and lying to you, and the fact that I still don't regret it is part of why I believe you should kill me."

I listened with apt attention. In this one conversation I learned so much about the man I thought I'd already known pretty well. Even with him encouraging me to do it, I still wasn't going to kill him.

"No," I said. "I won't kill you, I don't want to."

He turned to look at me, and I saw his face for the first time in the interaction. He looked old. His face was sunken and his hair was dark grey, which I didn't notice from looking at the back of his head because of the lighting. I'd guess he was between sixty to seventy years old, if I didn't know he was over two-thousand.

"I'm ready to die, Perseus," he said with a sad smile. "My life has not been happy, but it's come to a close and all I ask is a happy death."

I'm not going to kill him. . .

"Do you think the world is better off without the gods?" I asked.

"At one point I would have said yes, but even then I wouldn't have been speaking the truth. I honestly don't know, but I do know it's in good hands."

It was a ridiculous question to ask, because the world wasn't going to be without the gods. I'm not going to kill Hades.

"The Underworld will cease to exist after I'm gone," he said. "I think it's better that way. Life after life, is not truly peace. Eternal life is a curse, and I wish it upon no one. To simply no longer exist, to no longer think, to no longer be — that's my fate and that's what should be in store for everyone. That's what most of them think is going to happen anyway."

"What about Nico and Bianca?" I said.

"They're on the surface, and have been for weeks. I said goodbye to them a while ago. I was never the father they deserved."

He held out his hand to me, and I hesitated to shake it. After a moment, I gripped it and pulled him into a hug. I'm not going to kill him. It wasn't until then that I realized that that was a lie I'd been telling myself over and over again.

My hand made a gesture and I pulled away from the hug, my hand resting on the handle of a spear. I slid my hand down to the end of it and pushed the button, and it shrank back into my bracelet.

Hades smiled at me, but grimaced in pain. Ichor seeped out of his stomach and stained his shirt. He swayed on the spot, then leaned to the side and over the edge of the roof. My instinct was to catch him, but my shock at my own action made me just watch him fall. He was nothing but ash before he reached the ground.

Sadness overwhelmed me, and my eyes suddenly felt wet, but I didn't cry. I wasn't going to kill him.

"You actually did it," said Thanatos. "You murdered your own friend. You really are without a soul."

* * *

A few hours was what I needed to grieve enough to be in the right headspace. This day just dragged on for an eternity, even though the hours went by like seconds. Today was my last day of purpose. When I woke up tomorrow, I'd have nothing to do; no one to be. My life as the Assassin of Olympus was over.

The next place I decided to visit was Camp Half-Blood. The demigods still likely feared and hated me for killing their godly parents, but they were free now. I always thought that one day after my job was done, I could just come here and tell them the gods were evil and I was in the right, then they'd all be happy and grateful. It wasn't so simple now that that day was here because I didn't know if I was in the right.

What I saw when I returned to the camp I'd killed Atropos in about six years ago wasn't what I expected. The place was abandoned and empty. Plants had already begun to overgrow and spread up the walls of the vacated cabins. It was so dirty and disorganized. I wondered how long it's been since anyone set foot here. By the looks alone I would have guessed a decade had I not known that to be impossible.

As I explored the desolate camp I spotted movement by the big house and realized it wasn't completely abandoned. Chiron had walked from the side of the house to the front porch, not in his wheelchair. I walked up to him and he spotted me, but didn't run or attack or anything, which I took as a good sign.

When I got close enough, I saw contempt on his face. "I guess I don't hold much popularity around here," I said.

"You really did it," said Chiron in a disappointed fatherly voice. He was the closest thing Annabeth had to a father while she was alive, but I'd never gotten the chance to know him as well.

"I don't suppose you agree it was a good thing," I said.

He sighed.

"The gods were evil, though," I explained. "They held the Earth under their thumb and treated humans like ants, stepping on some and shining a magnifying glass on others, and took joy in it. They deserved justice, and I was the only one capable of issuing it."

"Oh I know full well who the gods were and what they did, but I'd hardly call your murder spree justice. They may have deserved what they got, but at what cost? You acted very rashly and didn't think about the ramifications. Your actions severely impacted the demigods and myself. I also knew quite a few nymphs and satyrs who couldn't continue to exist any more because of the deaths of the gods. Your old friend Grover, who never got to live out his dream of finding Pan, was one of him. I had to watch him die suddenly of what looked like old age, even though he was still so young."

Grover. That was a name that hadn't crossed my mind in years. He was my only friend back at school, but our paths separated after I became the Assassin. Now he was dead because of me. I'd say the news made me sad, but I already couldn't get any sadder. It did pile onto the guilt, however.

"At least you feel shame," he said after seeing the expression on my face.

I wasn't sure what to say; I wasn't even sure what to think at that moment.

"I'm dying too, by the way. Aging, more like. It's for the best, I think. Now that the demigods have abandoned camp and no more are going to be born, I'm not sure who'll I'll be from now on. I've lost my purpose."

"We have one thing in common," I said, and there was a short pause "Where did they go?"

"For a long period Zeus held the demigods imprisoned here for fear they'd go and join you, as Annabeth did. Once Zeus had been defeated, they all left and went to find their own ways. All except one, that is."

"A demigod is still here?" I asked, intrigued.

"I don't mind the company, but his determination to remain here confuses me. I asked him, and he just said he was waiting, but wouldn't tell me what for."

I'd considered asking if I could talk to whoever it was, but decided against it, mainly because I doubted Chiron would let me. Instead, I said, "I know you're not exactly fond of me, but I could use some advice."

"Well you are still a demigod," he said.

"I don't know what to do now," I admitted. "Now that the gods are dead, I don't know where to go or what to be. Who am I, if not for the Assassin of Olympus?"

"Are you happy now that your mission is over? Are you relieved that your job is done?"

"No." I didn't even have to hesitate. "And I don't know why not."

"You were codependent on your goals. What you were supposed to do defined who you are, but now that you're done your brain can't decide who you are. The reason you're confused isn't because of remorse or guilt for the consequences you never considered, it's because your brain thinks it's worse off now than it was when there were still gods for you to murder."

"Maybe."

"I believe doubt is the source of your confliction. You don't know how you feel about what you did, what it caused, and who you are. You're conflicted between different viewpoints, and you won't be in a solid state of mind until you sort it out. You said you don't know what to do? My suggestion is to take some time alone and figure out what to believe."

He was right, of course. I needed to be alone. That thought had been in the back of my mind for a while, but it finally came to the front.

"You're right," I said. "That helps a lot, thank you." After a moment of pause, I said, "and I'm sorry," trying to sound as sincere as possible. I didn't need to specify what I was sorry about; he knew.

I left camp, and knew exactly what I needed to do now.

I returned to Zoë's camp and found her doing pull-ups on a tree branch. When she noticed me, she returned to the ground and walked toward me with an apprehensive look on her face.

"I need to tell you something," I said somberly.

"No," she said.

"What?"

"No. Thou aren't ending things with me again." She'd used 'thou', which meant she was mad.

"How did — ?"

"After everything you told me earlier, I'd have been surprised had thou not tried this."

I sighed. "You know I care about you a lot, but I can't be with you any more."

"Thou can, and thou will," she said firmly.

"After everything that's happened, I'm not in the right state of mind to treat you right. You deserve way better than me."

"There isn't anyone better than thee."

I closed my eyes and took a calming breath. She was making this very difficult for me. "I don't deserve to be with you."

"Thou honestly believe that? And thou want to punish thyself? Why?"

"Too many reasons to list. Every single person killed by the gods since I started my mission is on me."

"That's ridiculous."

"All the nymphs, satyrs, centaurs, and other mythical beings are dying because of me."

"No one could have seen that coming."

I continued, ignoring her statement. "I sat idly by while my own mother was imprisoned and likely tortured by a maniac who eventually killed her. I did nothing to save her!"

There was a pause. "That's what this is really about. You blame yourself for her death."

"Of course I do, because I'm at fault."

"You can't blame yourself for everything."

"I'm taking responsibility for the harm I've inflicted on the world. I took away your immortality by killing Artemis."

"I don't care about that. The fact is that the world is better off without the gods."

"I don't know that that's true. Things are changing, and there's no way of knowing if it's for the better. I'm not going to figure out how to keep the world from falling apart without deities while pretending I can have a normal and happy life that I don't deserve with you."

"So, what? You're just going to go live on a mountain somewhere, alone for the rest of your life, paying some kind of penance for your deluded crimes?"

An image appeared at the back of my mind. I saw the mass of energy that once was my loyal trident holding up the sky. "Yes," I said. "I am."

"If thou leave me now, I won't forgive thee. I understood why thee did it the first time, but not now. I won't give thou another chance."

"Good," I said. "I don't deserve one. I don't want you waiting for me, because I'm not coming back. I can't, no matter how much I might want to. You should find someone else, or yourself."

"You have things to figure out. I understand if you need to be alone to do that. I don't understand why you think you have to be alone permanently."

"I'm done trying to make you understand." I wanted to tell her I was sorry, but it would be easier for the both of us the angrier she was with me.

She quickly kissed me before I could react, then pulled away from the kiss goodbye. Then she punched me in the shoulder quite hard. "Goodbye, Perseus."

"You're betraying everyone you care about today," said Aphrodite. "Will you go punch Domino in the face next? Or perhaps Nico or Bianca?"

I ignored the hallucination and shadow traveled away.

Aphrodite was kind of on the money though, as Domino was the last person for me to say goodbye to. I couldn't face Nico and Bianca after killing their father, whether they hated me or understood why I did it. Bianca and Zoë were friends. The siblings would just have to find out they'd never see me again from her.

I appeared in my apartment, where Domino was already waiting for me.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" she said immediately.

"Astute as always," I commented.

"I still have a job to do, but it seems yours is over. It'll be sad, not working with you anymore."

"You could always visit me, although I'd request you don't. I need solitude to work through things."

"I understand. I guess this is goodbye."

"I guess it is. I'm going to miss you, Domino."

She appeared hesitant, and then zoomed forward and gave me an awkward hug for a second, then zoomed back.

"That was strange," I said, "but I appreciate the gesture."

"Humans hug to show affection to each other. I may only be a machine, but I've grown quite fond of you." She seemed to consider what else to say, but then she just nodded and sped away.

I emptied the apartment of any belongings I still cared about keeping, then wrote down a message for my landlord on a piece of paper and left it on the table next to a bar of gold, where she'd eventually find it after a while of me not paying my rent.

I left the apartment for the last time, and appeared on Mount Tamalpais, where I'd fought Atlas and killed Artemis what felt like an eternity ago. The scenery was different, though. The ruins of Mount Othrys were still there, and what remained of Krinos was there too. The difference was that the sky was perfectly clear, and not funneling toward the mountain top. Krinos just hovered above the ground as a ball of white energy with small blue wisps swimming around in it.

As I approached Krinos, I saw what I thought was another apparition of a god I'd killed for a moment, then realized it was the Entity. I was conflicted as to how I should feel about seeing him. I used to believe I owed him everything, but if it weren't for him I wouldn't be torn up right now, and all the things I blamed myself for would never have happened. I was beginning to realize that the power and knowledge he gave me wasn't a gift, but a curse. He gave me a mission with a heavy price that I didn't hesitate to fulfill, without knowing I was paying.

"You've begun to doubt," said the Entity. Even though I was confused as to whether or not I should hate him for putting me in my current state, his red eyes still completely lacked malevolence. "Understandable. You shouldn't have let Hermes get to you."

"Was everything he said true?" I asked him.

"Quite so, but he made it sound worse than it is. There are negatives to the Greek pantheon's destruction for certain, but the positives far outweigh them. You have to understand that the world faces a great danger, that it never would have survived had the gods remained in power. Even if the world was far worse off without them, at least it'd continue to exist."

"The Fates warned me of an Armageddon, the day I killed them. They said they'd have been able to stop it."

"They only spoke a half truth. They saw the end of the world, but they were nowhere near powerful enough to prevent it, even when there were three of them."

"What's coming? And how do I stop it?"

"It is not your place to know, and it is not your job to prevent it. Your journey has come to an end. Someone else will take your spot as a hero."

"I was never a hero," I said without hesitation. "I went on a killing spree, and created a mess, that I guess someone else is going to have to clean up."

"You apply too much blame on yourself. I planned out every single millisecond following you becoming the Assassin. Everything happened exactly how I wanted it to. The present is better than the past. You've accomplished a great deal. Take some glory."

Unsure how to respond, I kept quiet.

"It was never your job to save the world," said the Entity. "It was your destiny to guide it to a new age."

"So what do I do now?"

"It's completely up to you." He turned to Krinos, and ran his hand through the cloud of energy. "The Lily of the Void."

I stared at it. From the first time I saw Krinos I knew its name was Greek for "lily".

"I pulled this from the depths of Chaos myself," he said. "It looked like this when I brought it to the surface. Shapeless and constantly changing its state of matter. After a moment, it solidified and took the form of a trident. That's what proved a child of Poseidon was destined to wield it. But your destiny is now fulfilled, and your bond with it is severed."

"So it isn't destroyed?"

"No. It is the most divine thing in existence now. As it once held up the sky, it now holds together the Earth. All of the gods' domains are now upheld by it. When you killed a god with it, it absorbed their essence directly, and passed a little bit of it over to you. After you stopped wielding it, the essence of the gods went up into the air, but eventually found its way back here. When you killed a monster with it, it destroyed its essence, but also passed a little bit over to you. Killing the monster once wasn't enough to stop it from reforming in Tartarus though, as you saw when you fought the Minotaur a second time."

"So it's kind of like the Earth's heart now."

"Hmm. I like that. Corazon shall be its new name."

"I don't recognize that word."

"It's Spanish for 'heart'. It wouldn't make sense to translate it to Greek, as that era is over now."

"Why Spanish though?"

"Because the next demigod to wield it is Leo Valdez. His journey is soon to begin, and he'll find his way here. Whether or not you'll still be here when he comes is up to you. You could train and guide him, or you could not."

I didn't comment. I knew I'd be here to help this Leo Valdez save the world. No matter how many people told me I wasn't to blame for the bad things happening to the world, I still felt indebted to it. If guiding him was the best I could to mend my mistakes, then I'd do it.

The Entity didn't say anything more. He seemed to be waiting for me to start the next topic of discussion, so I asked the question that was bothering me the most.

"If you're as powerful as you claim to be, why didn't you just will the gods out of existence and stop whatever apocalypse is coming before it happens? Why did I have to kill the gods when you could have and why does whoever Leo Valdez is have to save the world when you can?"

He sighed. "I do have the power to do all that, but it comes at a cost. My job is to protect the multiverse. I keep it stable, and I keep each universe intact for as long as possible. The multiverse is a very complicated thing, however. It's delicate, and my work has to be precise. All universes have their own rules that I must obey, because if they're broken it'd become unstable and likely get destroyed. This universe's rules are very specific and strict. Worlds under these rules I like to categorize as a 'story restriction'. It restricts my ability to meddle enough so I can't just end all conflict. If put on paper, the events of the plane would make a good book. I was only able to interfere enough without breaking the rules to ensure you succeeded, and enough to ensure Leo will succeed."

"I don't fully understand, but I'll take your word for it."

He seemed to be waiting for another question so I asked, "If I'm victorious and everything turned out as good as it possibly could, why do I feel so defeated?"

"That is a rhetorical question," he answered.

"It's not. I don't know the answer to it."

"A man who runs into a burning building and returns with a child just before the building explodes bears the guilt for all the people still in the building that he didn't save. The man who stood by and watched the first run in and out of the building feels no guilt at all."

Then he was gone. I thought about his words for several minutes. All he'd said was a simple metaphor, but it really helped. I looked at Corazon as I thought, then I heard very light footsteps behind me.

I quickly turned to face a large lion, that was stalking up on me. It stopped in its tracks when it saw me take notice of it, but didn't pounce. For some reason, I didn't feel at risk. Instead of ejecting a spear from my bracelet, I held out my hand to the Nemean lion. It cautiously walked forward and allowed me to pat its head, then purred.

"You recognize me, then," I said. It must have remembered that I didn't kill it back in the cave on the original Mount Olympus.

The lion laid down next to me and continued to purr as I continued to gently stroke my hand through its mane. Using magic I formed a chair out of earth and sat in it, watching the blue wisps swim through what had once been my faithful weapon.

"You should have a name," I said to my new friend. After a moment, I decided on a simple one and said it aloud. "Nemeas." And so I waited, for a world-ending event that wasn't my job to stop.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, that's it. That's the last chapter of this story. It's been a long journey, but I'm thankful to everyone who went through it with me. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and gave me feedback, and thank you to everyone who read every chapter. Even if there was only one person who made it this far, it was worth my time writing it.**


	28. The Sequel is Up!

**A/N: So I was contacted by theworstisgoingtohappen and they said they wanted to adopt the sequel to the Assassin of Olympus, and I readily agreed. We talked it out and bounced some ideas back and forth and now the first chapter of the sequel is up.**

 **It's called The Assassin of Olympus: Aftermath. Here's the link: www fanfiction net s/13309270/1/The-Assassin-of-Olympus-Aftermath (remove spaces and insert . before and after fanfiction and a / after net)  
**

 **I'll be reading it along with you guys as I work on my other projects. Big shout out to theworstisgoingtohappen for deciding to write this and coming up with a cool idea for the plot**

 **8/16/19: If you received a notification update, sorry. There's nothing new. I just removed the author's note chapters that don't really hold any significant info anymore.**


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